One of the great things about fly fishing for trout is the opportunity to get into truly wild places and experience natural beauty. Clearly, this leads to the potential for some great photography. Don’t look for any of that here…
In the last year I have started to attempt some underwater photography, mostly of fish I have caught. I bought an Olympus TG-2 for this purpose, and I’ve been very happy with it. Here in Underwater Photography Volume 1 I have posted some of my early results.
Some of my best photos have come before actually landing the trout. Here’s another example of that:
Unfortunately, many of my action shots come back looking like the following:
Unlike above water photos, strong sunlight helps with underwater shots from what I can tell. If it is bright enough and the trout is sufficiently still, you can get shots like this:
The main alternative to the previously mentioned method is to photo the fish on or shortly after release. Sometimes the trout will cooperate and take a few seconds to catch its breath after what it believed to be a life or death struggle. This provides a good opportunity for an underwater photo.
I’m still working on getting the TG-2’s settings down, so hopefully we will see some improvement in Volume 2.
James Kibler 