Apr. '01
You have just landed a trophy sized Dorado and you want to save that moment in time forever. Your fishing buddy pulls out the camera and takes your photo. Everything is great until you finally see that photo. The photo is blurry, the fish looks tiny, and your head isn’t even in the photo. Sound familiar? I think every angler has had this happen to him or her at least once.
Yes it has happened to me and I was truly disappointed when I saw the 35 lb. Dorado look like a runt. The photo had half the rail of the Red Rooster III, part of the deck, as well as myself and the Dorado in the frame. I looked small in the photo so you can image how small my fish looked. So how do you stop this from happening to you?
Be sure the person taking the photo knows the basics of photography. They should at least know how to get the angler and their fish in the frame, have it in focus and the sun in the subject’s face. Nowadays most cameras will do an excellent of taking your picture if you just give it a chance. All you really need to do is point and shot and your pictures are will be fine. With auto-focus and auto light meters that you find on a camera like a Cannon Rebel 2000 good photography is easy. But if you want to capture that perfect moment in time take a little more effort and take an outstanding photo of your trophy.
The first thing is to try to take the photo as soon as you can after landing the fish. Pelagic fish like Dorado and Sailfish lose the brilliant color quickly after they are landed. But be careful when handling a fresh fish. As well as take care with “bills” and teeth so that there is not any “additional” blood in the photo.
While on the blood subject, try to keep it out of your photo. Rinse the fish as well as the deck or any other place the blood has dripped on. Check both sides of the fish to find the best side to photograph, turn gaff holes, deck rash, line marks away from the camera.
So your fish is cleaned up and ready for its picture, what is next? Clean up the area around you. Ask other anglers to stay clear of your shot. You may want to have the skipper in the photo with or someone who helped you landed the fish, but having four guys mugging for the camera may not be what you want. If there is a landmark in the area you can add it to your background for a reference point. Alijos Rocks always a scenic background.
Everything is ready now right? No! Clean yourself up too. I don’t mean shower and shave but take off those sunglasses or remove that baseball cap. There are so many photos where you cannot see the anglers face. Show off how proud you are, how happy and how much fun you have just had. Don’t hide your face in the shadows.
Next month I will go into more details on fine-tuning your photo taking skills. Tricks to make you tiny fish look huge or a huge fish look monstrous. As well as talk about digital cameras and other fun high tech stuff.