Wee Jimmy and I went woosie at the weekend when we turned our noses up at a day on the Tweed on Saturday - all coz it was to be 8 degrees max with a north-easterly. In the end, it didn't look too bad and we wondered if we had made the wrong choice going for a day on the loch on the Sunday instead - just coz it was to be 16 degrees with little wind and a cloudless sky. Oh well, need to have a go with floater and Diawl Bachs or the likes. However, that wasn't doing much, and pulling wasn't much better. Nice day to be out though.

Then, over the hill came the cavalry! Loads of wee beetles started to fall, and they didn't half get the troots' attention. Early on, it was a case of picking off the odd interested party on biggish dries, like ethafoam beetle patterns. However, by mid-afternoon, we were looking at as good a rise as we've seen up there when it's cloudless, and the fish were a bit more tuned in and needed something a bit nearer the size of the natural, which was barely a 16. No need to be fancy - size 14 black hoppers did the trick (the underside of the beetle was pretty much black). The big majority of the fish we caught were brownies - a mix of wildies and last year's stock, with only the occasional rainbow.

We had a cracking afternoon, until the fall of beetles died away, which resulted in the fish going back down. Neither of us could be ersed to pick up the pulling rod after that, and we went for the early bath about 6-ish.


As luck would have it, I had the macro lens on the camera, and all the shots below were taken with it.

Click on the links under the thumbnails for the full size photos...



1000 pixel version




1000 pixel version




750 pixel version




750 pixel version




750 pixel version




1000 pixel version




1000 pixel version




750 pixel version




1000 pixel version




1000 pixel version




1000 pixel version




1000 pixel version




750 pixel version

Cheers,

Col

Close ups turned out well mate,I'll post up a pic of that wee holo hopper that was doing well for me when I get a minute......

well done lads sounds like you had a right day out, and with good evidence too

Very nice. I wish I had that in my neighbourhood!!

(PS go easy on the unsharp mask)

I thought I had -- 150 in "smart sharpen" in Power Retouche and 80 on the edges. Might have gone to 200 in some to make up for the macros being a wee bit iffy - but it's not easy getting good results hanging over the side of the boat while trying to focus on a 1/4 inch beetle 3 inches from the lens, I can tell you!

Don't forget yer wide-angle for the Malham fish Col ...... if ye catch one

__________________
Too much Saturn, not enough Moon.

Buzzers 2012


Fly Clips & Stands

I'll bring me 10-20 mm lad. It could snap a record conger eel side-on nae bother

I can imagine!

If you are shooting JPEGs you may want to see if you can turn down the sharpening done by the camera (in its RAW to JPEG conversion) and then only sharpen in your photo editor. I only say this because it seems you've got a knack and interest in producing some very nice photos so just a tip from someone with a similar interest. (I used to do a lot more photography than I currently have time for.)

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve/

Haven't shot a JPEG for years. Only shoot RAW and process in ACR 4.3.1 with sharpening set to zero. I sharpen every image individually to taste after all other processing and resizing. I use Power Retouche because it gives a more natural and less 'fierce' look than Photoshop's sharpening tools (hence my surprise that you thought I had over-cooked them).

I certainly couldn't see any sharpening artefacts (halos, aliasing etc) in those shots and after your comments I ran them past a couple of mates who know their photography and they thought they were spot on.

If I was a cheeky bar-steward I would suggest your monitor may need adjusting (just kidding)

I suspect it is just one preference against another. If you have a history going back to 35 mm film, you may be like some of my friends who think all digital looks un-natural compared to film, and my reply is usually along the lines of reckoning they prefer softer edges because that's what they are used to with film. Then you are getting into the realms of what each person's eyes perceive in terms of edge sharpness in the real world...

Care to send me some of yours so I can compare???

Cheers,

Col

PS: One extra thought... wondered it you might be seeing a wee bit noise in them and think it is over-sharpening. I shot a lot of them at ISO 400 to keep the shutter speed up due to hand-holding a 100 mm macro 3 inches from a 1/4 inch... etc etc.... ???

...........

__________________
Too much Saturn, not enough Moon.

Buzzers 2012


Fly Clips & Stands