Tag: photography

photography

Oh, snap! Enter the CalTrout Photo Contest

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The 2017 California Trout Photo Contest is accepting submissions now through August 31! Share your best photos of California’s rivers, streams and creeks and your angling experiences. Photos can include fish, anglers or others enjoying California waters or be more scenic in nature. Enter today for a chance to win some great gear and be featured on the CalTrout website, social media channels, and in issues of The Current.

Eleven winners total will be selected. One Grand Prize Winner, one People’s Choice Award and nine Best Photo winners.

Prizes awarded:

GRAND PRIZE – 1 Winner
Photo featured on home page of CalTrout website, one-year CalTrout membership, Limited Edition CalTrout-engraved Abel Classic Reel ($625 value)

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD – 1 Winner
Photo featured on home page of CalTrout website, one-year CalTrout membership, CalTrout neck gaitor, Tenkara USA Fly Rod Kit complete with all the essentials to get started tenkara fishing: Tenkara rod, 11’6″ Nylon Tapered Line, the keeper, 3 flies, tippet, and forceps & nippers. ($279 retail value)

BEST PHOTOS – 9 Winners
Photo included on Caltrout.org photo contest page, one-year CalTrout membership, CalTrout Patagonia Refugio backpack, and Smith polarized sunglasses ($189 value)
Contest Rules and Guidelines:

Once the submission period has ended, CalTrout will select 25 finalists. From those finalists, our members and social media followers will vote to determines the People’s Choice Award winner and 9 best photo winners. CalTrout judges will select the grand prize winner.

Judging Criteria: Photos will be judged on how well they depict the spirit of California waters and/or the sport of fly-fishing as well as overall artistic merit (lighting, color, composition, etc).

All photos must in some way be related to California rivers, creeks, or streams and the activities around them. Ideally, photos should have a horizontal format.
Maximum number of entries: 10 per individual.

All submissions must include a contest entry form.

Photographs must be in digital format.

Only online entries will be eligible. No print or film submissions will be accepted.

The photograph need not be taken with a digital camera; scans of negatives, transparencies, or photographic prints are acceptable.

Digital files must be high resolution, 300ppi, file size 3MB or larger (at close to actual size) and must be in .jpg format.

All entries must be received by midnight PST, August 31, 2017.

All entries require a signed model release for all people depicted in the image.

Please read our Full Contest Rules before entering. If you have further questions please email photos@caltrout.org. Photos must be submitted using our online form. Photos emailed to photos@caltrout.org will not be considered.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

Photo: Jonathan Matthews, 2017 Finalist

The fisherman's life

What’s up with the cutty squeeze?
flyfishjournal
(Courtesy The Flyfish Journal)

Two years ago, I got pretty excited by the cover of The Drake, showing the ultimate in fish handling: this salt-water fav actually stayed totally submerged, with the fisher’s hands and rod in the background. I thought that was a model for handing catch-and-release fish, and one that made me question some of my own fish wrangling, especially when taking that all-important beauty shot.

Over the weekend, I received the latest The Flyfish Journal with the above cover. Doesn’t it look like this cutthroat trout is getting squeezed? The magazine features a bunch of excellent pictures from fishers in a photo article called “Rises,” but to promote this kind of fish handling on the cover I find questionable.

From that 2015 piece, something to ponder from Gordon M. Wickstrom, the author of “The History of Fishing for Trout with Artificial Flies in Britain and America: A Chronology of Five Hundred Years, 1496 to 2000,” who wrote about six periods in fly fishing for the Orvis News blog in 2011:

“In closing, allow me to play the prophet: I think that, in this New Period of angling, we are part of an important cultural shift toward a deeper humanity and mercy of the good Earth. We may find ourselves living quite differently, living better with less, with a greater delicacy, clarity, balance and honestly. Fishing a fly on a clear, cold stream may well serve as a working model and inspiration for what we want. It shows forth qualities — environmental, psychological, social, economic and political — that we need to incorporate into the future.”

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Wickstrom was right. We’re entering an age where understanding environment is the key to survival. Those who have a reverence for nature will have to set a template for the future. To what degree we learn the hard way remains to be seen.

Keepemwetfishing

 

Worth a thousand words...

It’s a bird’s life

Local bird watcher and photographer Roger Cook snagged some excellent shots of wildlife along the LA River in Long Beach. In modern life, we are so separated from the cycles of nature. Walk into a Trader Joe’s and you’d think all food — organic spinach, frozen peas, bone-in pork chops — is spawned by little plastic-wrapped containers. These shots tell a truer tale.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

 

 

 

Calendar item

Calendar item: Peter Bennett river photo workshop slated for April 25
Peter Bennett
Peter Bennett

The Los Angeles River runs over 50 miles through the heart of a metro area populated by 10 million people. Yet in a place where water is such a precious commodity, hardly any of the inhabitants know the river’s history, where it begins or ends, or its current function. In fact, the patchwork of governments and agencies that control the river make it almost impossible to access it without trespassing. No other American city has so completely turned its back on such a resource. Most see it as a hideous scar on the landscape, a polluted dystopian highway through the heart of urban darkness. Yet, it is also a rich cultural canvas of striking visuals and unlimited potentials.

Join photographer Peter Bennett (www.greenstockphotos.com) as he takes you along an incredible, picturesque 10-hour river adventure, designed specifically for photographers. Peter’s intimate knowledge of the river and its history allows him to assist fellow photographers in finding unique and undiscovered places to shoot, all while providing technical help and great fellowship.

Please make sure to see a slideshow of Peter Bennett’s work on the Los Angeles River published through Grist.org.

One-day workshop

Date: Saturday, April 25, 8:30 am – 6:30 pm

Location: The Los Angeles River. Students will meet a the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, 570 W. Ave 26 #250, Los Angeles, CA 90065

Enrollment limit: 18 students

Skill/Experience level: Students should have a working knowledge of their camera and the ability to shoot in manual mode. A basic understanding of photography fundamentals is required.

Students should have a working knowledge of their camera and the ability to shoot in manual mode. A basic understanding of photography fundamentals is required. –

See more at: http://www.ssreg.com/juliadean/classes/classes.asp?courseid=24655&catid=1809#sthash.UMUfHlUv.dpuf
Tuition: $250 + $145 bus, docent, location permit and lunch fee

*Fee includes: Hands-on instruction and guidance, a docent, access to all locations, bus transportation throughout the day, lunch at Hop Louie in Chinatown, and snacks & water.

A special note from Peter Bennett:

“I am happy to announce the launch of my new blog: LA River Pix – http://lariverpix.com

This blog is really a labor of love as it will be a place to showcase photos of my favorite subject, a place I have been going back to for years now and still find something new and exciting to shoot (with a camera) each time. It will also be a place to teach about photography, the classes and workshops I have been leading have been going great and this will be an opportunity to supplement them and have some fun doing it.

If you get a chance, take a visit. If you like it, please support it by subscribing, and if you know someone else who might be interested, please spread the word.

But most of all, go down and take a look for yourself and see what is happening along the river’s banks. There are some exciting changes already happening, the future looks bright and I believe the LA River is on its way to becoming an iconic and integral part of Los Angeles. Also, go to the site and learn how you can be a part of a major decision that is coming up regarding the future of the river and all of LA, and make your voice heard.”

– See more at: http://www.ssreg.com/juliadean/classes/classes.asp?courseid=16615&catid=2932#.dpuf