Brian O’Keefe from Oregon has been taking photographs outdoors since he was a very young man.
And while I don’t know his age, his hair is graying, so it’s safe to say he’s been doing that for decades.
If you’ve read any fly fishing magazines or outdoor publications like Outside, you’ve seen his work.
These days, he’s working on an online effort called Catch Magazine: the Official Journal of Fly Fishing Photography and Film.
If you haven’t seen it Click here You can get yourself a free subscription.
O’Keefe provided a good seminar on making better photographs at the recent Federation of Fly Fishers fair in Ellensburg.
He said he uses an Olympus Tough point and shoot that is waterproof, shock proof and freeze proof, a $500 Lumix point and shoot that has one lens that goes from a wide angle to a 200mm telephoto, and a Canon SLR.
Canon’s 70-200mm 2.8 is his favorite lens.
He told the story about unknowingly dropping the Olympus in a creek and going back the next week to find it underwater and unharmed.
O’Keefe said he spends his money on good quality lenses, not camera bodies. That’s one reason he likes the Lumix, which has a high quality lens made by Leica.
He advised shooters to look for elevated camera angles or to shoot from a low angle.
Other advice:
Look closely at your photos and try to clear out the clutter, isolating the fish or the fly fisher in the frame.
When shooting fish, put the camera at the fishes level rather than shooting down at it.
Keep eyes in sharp focus.
Climb up riverbanks or hills to give the river perspective.
Shoot early or late for light that provides rich, not harsh, colors.
Before shooting a shot of a nice fish, communicate with the angler. Explain some rules, like saying “Up” when he needs to lift the fish from the water or “rotate body” or “rotate head” “turn belly or head toward me”. The idea is to quickly lift the fish, get it at the right angle and get it back into the water within a few seconds so it can be safely released.
Consider laying on a sandbar to get a low angle on a fish.
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