This one is for Howard...

It's hard top believe that the last post I made was nearly three months ago, but I haven't had a lot of opportunities to make any new photographs, so I have been thinking of a way to make a new post and to post some photographs that haven't been on my blogsite.  Then the other day on Facebbok, one of my fishing friends, and admirer of my photography posted on my wall the following, "Brian Schiele needs to post some more pictures on his blog...just sayin'." Howard by they way is responsible for the the blog, Windknots and Tangled Lines. 
That being said, I thought I'd post a few photographs from my Flickr stream that for one reason or another never quite made it over here, until now..
This first one, was one the same roll as the other two double exposures from the original post "Trout Dreams" , of the three photographs that turned out from that roll, I felt like it was the least successful, but according to the comments I got on Flickr, it seems to be as successful as the other two.

I felt like the second exposure of the fish just wasn't in the right place, so I didn't post it here.



This next one, comes from another post I made after I fished with Tenkara USA founder Daniel Galhardo, I am not sure why this one didn't make it either, but I am thinking it should have made it.  What do you think?

This next one, was originally a part of a diptych I did a few years ago that I put on Flickr, but didn't get a lot of response to it then, so I re-posted it as a single image and I think it is better as a stand alone photograph rather than a diptych.  You can check out the diptych here.

I guess this will be enough for now, I hope you like these photographs and thanks Howard for your interest in my photography as well as your friendship. I look forward to the day we get the chance to meet and fish, something I hope will come sooner rather than later..
Here's to 2013,  which will be a special  year for mtbbrian.com, 2013 marks the 10th year of my site in its many variations that have occurred in the past 10 years. I hope you'll read that later in 2013 and thanks for checking out my photography no matter where you joined me on this journey.
Brian

Baring My Photographic Soul...

I like social media, from Facebook, to Flickr, and my blogsite.  Through these various websites,  I have been afforded  some great opportunities to  promote my photography; so when the opportunity to help a local college student, Britney Anderson, with her college assignment I jumped at it.  Her project for her  communication class, involves interviewing Utah photographers of various levels and gathering all of the interviews up to show the diversity of photographers in Utah. 
I have watched the interview a few times I think she did a great job, and putting myself out there in such a way was  fun. The entire video is just a little over 22 minutes, and throughout it you'll hear or see little vignettes of my adorable daughter, and Britney even ended with it a "blooper" section, that features her even more.  So if you have 22 minutes to spare, take a look at the video, and check out Britney's website as she gathers other interviews, I think it is an A+ grade for sure.  If you ever find yourself in a similar situation where you can help a college student or someone starting out, do it.
Thanks for watching.
Brian

Fishing buddies - Part II of...

I recently had the pleasure of fishing with another Army buddy of mine, someone I haven't fished in quite a few years; he's the one fishing buddy I have that I would call my fishing mentor, assuming he lived a lot closer and we could fish together more than once every few years together. I was really hoping to show him all that I have learned over the past few years that it's been since we fished together too, but unfortunately that didn't happen, but that's OK we got to spend a lot of time together and got the chance to catch up and talk about the brief time that we actually worked together, those that we worked with and life. 

My buddy Rick is a little old school when it comes to fly fishing, which in the case of fly fishing isn't a bad thing and he catches fish in conditions where others don't. 
      When we first while we were mobilized on active duty together about, which was when my interest in fly was just beginning.  I had just bought my first fly rod off of Ebay and I would bring it to work to practice casting during my lunch and Rick would come out and give me pointers on how to cast.  We later which fishing for my first time and I eventually caught my first fish. 

It was great fishing with him, because it was also my birthday on the particular weekend we fished together, he even stayed in my home with my family. 

Is there a particular fishing buddy that you have that you haven't fished with or at least heard from in a while? What are you waiting for, call him or her and go fishing!
Thanks again Rick!
Brian

Bamboo Fishing, not catching...

It's hard to write about fishing with a well made and beautiful bamboo fly rod when you didn't catch a single fish with, but here goes..
Back in the spring the website, Outdoor Blogger Network, had a unique and wonderful contest that consisted of two parts, where the prize was a bamboo fly rod from Fall River Fly Rods, along with a reel from Montana Fly Company and a line from RIO.  All you had to do to enter the contest was to comment on the original post and 15 of those who posted were selected to be apart of the first part of the contest. The idea behind the contest was to be apart of the shared experience of fishing with anglers all over the United States, literally from sea to shining sea, from Vermont to Washington state. Included with the rod was a  journal so that we could write about our experience with the rod, and all of us have blogs too that we ae all writing about as well.  The second part of the contest involves one of the 15 hosts being selected to take home the rod, reel, line, journal and all other things that it picked up along the way.
I was chosen as one of the 15 hosts and fished with the wonderful rod recently, and not only did I not catch any fish with the none of the photographs I made of the rod with my Holga turned out either and I am not sure why.
The rod itself is a beautifully made bamboo fly rod, made by Jason Zicha, who I have had  the pleasure of meeting a few times over the past few years.  This is my really my first time that I have really had the chance to fish with a bamboo fly rod, especially on a river that involved casting 20' to 30' across the river.  Once I finally got the hang of casting this rod and slowed down my cast, I was really able to cast accurately with every cast.  
There are five others after me, so it will be only a matter of weeks before the final selection is made and the rod will go to its new owner. I sure hope it's me, because I was just getting the feel for this lovely rod and I want to catch some fish it. Sadly, I am the only one who has fished with it so far that has not caught any fish, and knowing what I know about the others that follow me, I will likely be the only one of us that won't catch any fish with it either.
I will end this with a picture of me with the Fall River/OBN fly rod, something I hope will not be the one and only of either..
I will post other photographs from that same weekend , more like the ones I normally do, that don't involve the rod shortly.
Brian

A Little Flare...

It's no surprise really that a camera with a plastic lens would flare, and flare a lot given the situation of photographing a back light a scene where the sun is prominently arranged in the upper left corner, even a Leica or Carl Zeiss lens would do that. I don't think however that the given the same conditions a Leica or Carl Zeiss lens would give a flare with any kind of texture as is the case of this recent photograph I made while fishing with my friend Emily aka "The River Damsel".  We were fishing Salt Lake's Big Cottonwood Canyon creek on a mid summer's evening, fishing tenkara style, Emily's first experience with the Japanese style fly rod, and we came up this spot on the creek, I knew I there was a photograph waiting to be made.

I really like the texture, it kind of looks like what the same scene would look like if squinted your eyes, don't you think...
Brian

Tenkara Summit 2012 Day II

Day two of the Tenkara Summit 2012, was more visually interesting   to me, because it involved fishing and demonstrations on the Provo River, everywhere you looked you could see anglers casting their tenkara rods, it was a beautiful site to see.  One of my favorite moments and photographs was watching one of the other speakers from Japan cast into this riffle.

Another favorite photograph of mine...

Another...

I wish I knew or remember the names of the people I was photographing.  Despite my college background in journalism, I just get wrapped up into making photographs that I usually forget to ask for names..

 That being said, this is John, from Tenkara Guides LLC, who were Sponsors of the summit showing us how it's done.
I can't say enough about how much I appreciate all that went into bringing the Tenkara 2012 Summit to my home, it was a unique experience to meet other like minded anglers. I hope that it happens again next year, and it comes back to Utah again  too.
Brian

Tenkara Summit 2012 - Part I

It's difficult trying to photograph and event an participate in it at the same time, which was the  challenge I had recently at the 2012 Tenkara Summit, that was in my home town, Salt Lake City, Utah.  Despite this challenge, I think I  I managed to do both fairly well at the summit. I found the conference to be successful and I hope that the organizers did as well. Aside from photographing it, I wanted to go attend to learn more about tenkra fishing and to meet other like minded anglers, many of whom I had only know through other blogs and Facebook.

The summit was a two day event held in Salt Lake City on the first day and on the Provo River the second day.  The first day consisted of a few lectures on the history of tenkra fishing in Japan and other things as well as casting, fly tying and other related fly fishing demonstrations.

The summit's keynote speaker, Dr. Hisao Ishigaki, came all the from Japan, he is widely regarded in Japan and abroad as tenkra fishing master. I really wish I could speak Japanese so I speak with him, because he is incredibly passionate about fishing.

One of my blogging and Face Book friends that I was anxious to meet was Anthony Naples, who did the amazing poster for the summit.

After the formal events ended for the day, I did a little fishing in a very urban location in Salt Lake City, with another Face Book and blogging friend, Karel from "Tenkara on the Fly".  I had a a photograph of our fishing, but it didn't turn out. Sorry Karel! I guess you'll have to come back to Utah for that opportunity or I guess I can visit you.  I also met Ashley and Brian from Learn Tenkra dot com, it was great to meet them and learn how much of a fan of my photography they are. Thanks you two and thanks for the video!
I will end this chapter of the 2012 Tenkara Summit with portrait I did of another of my Face Book blogging friends that I wanted to meet at the summit, the "Troutrageous" "Tenkara Sasquatch" Mike.

 

Now on to day two for some fishing photographs!

Salmo Trutta Again

When I first get a roll of film back,  I give the twelve frames a quick once over, and I know instantly which frames will be scanned or printed right away and then there are other images that take a while an grow on me after a while.  This photograph was one that fit into the latter group, because I first made this photograph about two months ago, and I keep coming back to it every time I look at the roll of film.  When I first got the roll back I thought it wasn't sharp enough and a little over exposed.  

So I scanned this  photograph of this lovely brown trout that my friend James caught a few months ago, and that I shot using the macro lens for my Holga.  I kind of think that the lack of sharpness is how trout see the watery world the live in. What do you think?

Brian

Please Stop!

I was going through some old photographs recently and came across a contact print of a roll of 35mm film of images I shot while watching the evening news some 20 years ago or so, I remember doing it  for an assignment for one of the many art classes I took in college.  I don't remember the class or the exact nature of the assignment, but I do remember why I did it, and considering the recent headlines of the senseless shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, I thought I'd post that assignment here.

  

So please, let's find more constructive ways to express our opinions or to act out our fantasies or whatever the case maybe, there are ways to so that doesn't involve killing, beating and torturing others. There are some seven billion plus human beings that live on this "third rock from the sun", and there is absolutely no reason why we can't do so with relative peace and harmony.  I am not seeking out some utopian society, all I am asking is for people to think about the consequences of their actions and be more considerate of others; I don't think it is too much to ask or difficult to do.

 Thanks...

Dances With Trout...

I don't know about you, but having a trout dance on the end of your line is quite possibly one of the coolest things I have experienced in my life, it's one of those rare experiences where you are connected to another of God's great creations after all.  And if you aren't catching fish yourself, it's still pretty cool to watch a friend do it too.

Photo Catch of the Day

I recently had the opportunity to do some deep sea fishing, which like most of my fishing adventures was rather uneventful, but it did give me the opportunity to explore the boat I was on.  While there was no "catch of the day", I think that this was certainly the "Photo of the Day."  Actually, there another one I made with my Nikon Coolpix, of my daughter, holding out this squid, but that's a photograph for another blog..

Fishing buddies - Part I of...

I enjoy fishing by myself on occasion, but fishing with someone is really all that much more enjoyable, and while there are several people that I know that I would really love to fish with and get to know, there are only a small number of people I am able get out with and fish.  One of my fishing buddies is my friend James.
I have known James for about six years or so, and have fished with him for about  three or four of years of those years.  He's a pretty good angler I'd say, he usually catches at least one where I am not catching any fish at all.  I have photographed him a lot during the time we've fished, but I'd thought I'd post these two pics of him from one of our recent outings.

Both of these photographs are of him changing his fly, as he put it, "I was catching so many fish that day, I wore my fly out!"

I enjoy fishing with James, he's a good man all around and we have a lot in common despite our different backgrounds.  

So here's to you my friend, a BIG HOO AHH  for all you do for this great country of ours so that we and others can fish whenever we want to and can and here's to many more adventures on the river..

The story benhind the photograph...

I have been thinking about my son a lot lately, who will be turning 18 soon,  so I thought I'd post this photograph that I did a few years ago on a summer visit; what follows is the story behind the photograph..

It was the early part of  the summer of 2006, my son had just come for a visit and we were headed to my wife's family reunion.  It was held that year an old park in tiny town in the south western corner of the Salt Lake Valley called Copperton, and like I do most of the time I brought a camera or two with me, in hopes of making a photograph or two.  Like most parks this one had a playground, that had a mix of old and new things for the kids to play on, but the one that caught my eye the most was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.  Imagine if you will a concrete mound, that had a slide on one side, a means to climb and walk up on another, a third side where you could climb up and a fourth side that was covered in brick and had a concrete tube sticking out of it, that resembled a cannon.  I think there were tubes that you can't see in the photograph that ran perpendicular to this one also.  As I came and went that day through the park and through this playground I kept thinking about the tube, so near the end of the reunion I stopped and made a photograph of it.  The first one was just of the tube as it was, but as clicked through advancing the roll of film on my Holga, I felt like it needed more, so I asked my then 12 year old son to come over and climb in the tube and put his hand out as if he were holding on to the outside of it. 

Fast forward to the end of that summer and I am attending the Maine Photographic Workshops, something I had been wanting to attend for a very long time and was extremely fortunate to do so on a scholarship.  I had selected to attend a workshop called, "In Search Of the Personal", taught by a great photographer and educator John Goodman, from Boston.

Like most photography workshops, the first day involved showing our photographs to the instructor and the class, I had a few dozen photographs in two portfolio books.  I don't really remember all that John said about my photographs that day, that is except for what he said about this one. 

As he pulled this photograph from the portfolio, I told him about how the photograph had come to be and he says to me, "This photograph is about your relationship with your son. Isn't it." As he finished his thought I instantly felt as if I had been hit with a one ton wrecking ball, because was he right, and I had never thought about it in the months since I had made the photograph. 

When I got back from that week in Maine, I made another print and sent it to my son with a letter explaining the photograph to him and what I had hoped would come with our relationship.  I know he got the photograph but I don't know if he still has or even remembers me sending it to him nearly six years ago.  I hope he does of course, and if he doesn't I want him to know that I am still holding and that I love him. 

College Days...

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to two college photography classes taught by my friend and fellow photographer Michael Slade.  He is an adjunct instructor at two different universities here in Utah, but I spoke to his classes at BYU.  The first class I spoke to was the intro photography class, Photo 1 Spring 2012.
The first thing I noticed when I got to the class was that the entire class was that is was  comprised entirely of women. While it was merely an observation, I did think it was a little unusual at first, but I asked Michael about it, and he told me that fewer men have majors in areas that generate less income these days; when I was in college, I'd say any of the art and photography classes I took had slightly more men then women as I recall.  I talked to them mostly about my photography and shared with them my thoughts on being an artist and photographer who doesn't make a living at it and I showed them my photographs as well. 
The second class I spoke to was the Photo B&W Darkroom Spring 2012, and while I briefly spoke to the class about the same things I spoke about to the other class, the bulk of the nearly two hours was spent in the darkroom giving the students a printing demonstration.  While Michael initially set up things so that we could be demonstrating to the class, the majority of the students wandered over to my side of the darkroom, which I must admit it was flattering that more of them were listening to me,rather than Michael,  I think they were just  interested in hearing from someone other than Michael for a change.  
I brought with me three different rolls to make a print from for the demonstration, so it was hard to pick just one, but I kept coming back to the one pictured above.  It was great being able to share my love for photography with these students, they all seemed interested in what I was saying, and on several occasions during both presentations Michael would chime in with a comment along the lines of, "Now where have you heard that before" or "Doesn't that sound familiar".  It was a great confidence builder hearing those affirmations from an educator and fellow photographer.  
It was a great way to spend a few hours with these young, eager and talented photographers, and while I have never thought much about being a teacher, it was great knowing that the knowledge I have is valuable enough to share.  
Speaking of talent, make sure you check out the class blogs, as well as Micheal's blogs and website, the Photo I class has a list of the students blogs and I am sure the other class will have one too as the semester continues.  Make sure to check out Micheal's other blogs too, he has two great projects that he is working on, my favorite is the one he works on every December he calls "Creche A Day".  Also check out his "Utah Bigfoot" blog, a project he has been working on for a few years now, where he photographs various sites around Utah where "bigfoot" has been spotted and documented at.
Thanks again Michael!