Rise Motion

A rainbow slices through the water at Silver Creek after taking down a baetis.  I got within about 7 feet of this fish and tracked as many midges and baetis as time would allow over this rainbow's feeding lane.  It took about 20 minutes for this particular fish to adjust to my presence in the water.  For whatever reason, this rainbow did not see me as much of a threat with the exception that it never moved any closer to me to feed.  This particular shot was taken at 1/8000th of a second at ƒ2.8.

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2.8 80-200 afs lens

Rising Rainbows II

Looking Upstream

 

I have been working on a "rising" series the past few days at Silver Creek.  The weather has been beautiful--highs in the 60's--and plenty of Baetis to get the fish up.  Starting tomorrow, though, it looks like winter will be a lot closer...

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2.8 80-200 afs lens

Rising Rainbows

 

 

 

 

The above images were taken yesterday at Silver Creek.  Surprisingly, I was able to get pretty close to feeding fish without putting them down.  There were quite a few Baetis starting around 12:30 and the fish were on them.

On the techie side, I shot the images above at at least 1/4000th of a second.  I set aperture priority on the 80-200 lens to ƒ2.8--wide open--both for speed and to limit the depth of field for a dreamier effect.  I did not use a polarizing filter as I wanted some reflection and I wanted as much speed as possible without cranking up the iso.  My iso was set to 280.  I am hoping to try and get one more session in while the warm days are still here in conjunction with a lot of Baetis.

Fly Fishing Photography

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2.8 80-200 afs lens

Silver Creek Preserve

Fall light drifts onto Silver Creek.  Silver Creek Preserve, Idaho.

 

This is a very simple 2 image panorama taken using the shift function on Nikon's 24 pc-e lens.  On another note, the weather here is slated to be absolutely beautiful through Wednesday and then it looks like early winter with snow and highs in the low 30's.  There have been lots of bugs on the Creek from Baetis and Mahogany Duns to October Caddis and Tricos.  Yes, you heard that, there has been a smattering of tricos here and there on the Creek.

 

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

Green Drakes

Nope, this image was not taken today.  It's an image I took in June and hadn't the time to edit.  It's of a green drake nymph and artificial green drake adults.  I used NIK's Silver Effex Pro 2 for the black and white conversion from RAW.

 

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2.8 105 micro lens

Fly Fishing Photography

Cow & Calf Moose

A Cow & Calf graze an alfalfa field tonight--10/29/12--near Silver Creek.

I watched these two for about 15 minutes and the calf fed from its knees rather than standing.

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2.8 80-200 afs lens

Adams Gulch Panorama

Adams Gulch.  Sun Valley, Idaho.  Heart Of Fall.

The above image is comprised of 7 images taken today and stitched together in Adobe's Photoshop CS5.  The temps hit 60 degrees today in Ketchum and it looks like it should remain relatively warm through the week.

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2 35mm lens

 

Guinness, my English Setter, takes a rare pause.  Sun Valley, Idaho

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2 35mm lens

Fly Fishing Photography

Fish On

While a bit windy for much of the day today, Silver Creek was still cranking out the baetis.  Lots of fish up and nobody around.  Through the rest of the week it looks a bit warmer with cloudy skies.  That's often the perfect recipe for the Little Tiny Olive Fellows.

Nikon D3s, Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens

Silver Creek Fall Baetis

Baetis.  Silver Creek, Idaho

First, think cold.  Arrived at the Nature Conservancy section of Silver Creek this morning around 10:15 and it was 25 degrees.  By 2:30 it had warmed up to at least 37 degrees and there were as many baetis on the water as you can imagine.  Nobody on the river either...

Nikon D3s, Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens

Flying Ant

Flying Ant

September around here was the month of the flying ant.  This image was taken on Silver Creek, Idaho but there were also plenty around the Big Wood River.

Nikon D3s, Nikon ƒ2.8 105 Micro lens

Fly Fishing Photo Re-Do

This is the same photo as the previous post with the exception of the fact it is in color.  The water washed out in the B & W version and in my opinion doesn't work.  The color version above seems to work much better.  I used Nik's Color Effex Pro 4 and stacked a few filters to finish the image.  If you have never used Nik Software it is a fantastic plug-in suite for Aperture, Lightroom and or Photoshop. It continues to get better and better.  Here is the link to NIK.