Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Is it STILL Winter?

Freshwater freezes at 32° Fahrenheit.

It has been awhile since the local weatherman has uttered any temperature with a "thirty" in it, and it appears that things are not destined to change in the near future.

Frozen water presents a challenge to the angler...we don't drink brandy, so we ain't gonna take up icefishing anytime soon.

We could stand at the boat-dock and practice our newfound ninja-like Scandi skills, but somethin' tells us that we would be flickin' ice out of the guides after two or three throws. Plus, castin' in 10° weather, with no fly, on a boat ramp - kinda marks a fella as a little bit...different.

We have been putting off the commitment to the vise as of late, but the procrastination is wearing thin. Lately we have been looking for "just the right [insert material here]", but who are we foolin? It's not like we can chase down a herd of Guineafowl and hand-select the best of the best...we just have to make do with what is out there, or go broke tryin' to find The Perfect...Whatever.

As previously noted, we got a new camera, and it takes some pretty spiffy pictures. Naturally, our boredom and procrastination at the vise led us to take some pics of flies, and our overdeveloped sense of critique allowed that we could probably do a damn sight better if we put our mind to it. After a little research, we came up with this abomination.


It might look goofy, but it does the job in pretty tidy fashion. Tissue paper provides the diffusion, and a $2 lamp from Sally Ann's provides most of the illumination. We're still tweakin' the setup, altering backgrounds and light angles, but we're pretty happy with the outcome for a first effort. We have v2.0 on the drawing board, but we always have a hard time finding sharks with frickin' lasers...

At any rate, some of last night's shot. Enjoy.






8 comments:

Tom Chandler said...

Consider placing white reflective cards above and below your camera to bounce a little light back onto the front of your fly.

Looks good, but you're losing a little detail on the front side.

Unknown said...

sweet light tent neil. you're giving me some ideas.

Wes C. Attle said...

sweet flies bro'. I'll take a dozen!

G_Smolt said...

TC-
Yeah, I am gonna switch out the side-light to a "frontal bath", see if that gets a little more definition. That's the beauty of trial and error, y'know?

JP-
Cool. Keep us posted.

D-
You wish. Anyways, these flies don't work ;)

Brandon said...

Or use tinfoil to line the bottom - it will also bounce the light up from the bottom and mirror it in every direction.

BLUEANGLER said...

sweet setting! Another good example of no need for expensive setting. Great flies! too.

Unknown said...

I finally got around to building my light tent. check it out:

http://www.roughfisher.com/2009/01/diy-light-tent.html

Site manager said...

Your blog/site is the best. You could easily produce a magazine with your stories and photos.

I am a designer with years experience in magazine and catalog production and this is some good stuff!

I fly fish in and around the puget sound around the Islands and beyond. Key trips occasionally for a grand slam or two.

Keep up the great tales!
bill@hartlovedesign.com