Unknown angler...

I don't seem to get out and fish as much as I used to, so when I got a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus back recently, I was surprised to see that the first frame of the 12 exposure roll was a scene from a fall or early winter outing on the Lower Provo River.  

My first thought was that the lone angler who seems to be adjusting his line before he casts into cold dark water of the Lower Provo River, was one of my Army buddies, but after checking with him, he said that it wasn't him.  

So whomever you are "lone angler", thanks for letting me take a photograph of you.  

Brian

Photographs and Words by...

It is always a treat to have your photography published in a magazine, and I have been treated many times over the years, starting in my university's student news paper, a few local magazines, zines, and countless online blogs and magazines.

Until today, I'd say the thing I am most proud of when it comes to my photography was the article written about me and my photography in Winter 2011 issue of Fly Rod & Reel, I will always be indebted to its author, Bob White (Thanks again Bob!).

Today though, I have a new achievement to share, not only does it involve having some photographs in what I think is the most creative fly  fishing magazine out there, The Flyfish Journal, it also involves an essay that I wrote that accompanies the two photographs.  The essay is basically about my fly fishing experience, that began while I was on active duty with the Army and touches upon an issue that is near and dear to me, Veteran suicide.

A big shout out to the other writers, photographers, artists and the people that put that put the magazine together, especially the ones I know.  Keep up the great work!  

So go and buy a copy, preferably at a local fly fishing shop, my essay is in volume seven, issue four and then reach out to a Veteran you may know and take him or her fishing.

My essay is called, "Take a Veteran Fishing" and is on page 108.   This is just the cover, and not my photograph, the cover photograph belongs to Tosh Brown, who is an excellent photographer.  

Thanks,

Brian

 

Tenkara Guides, Badgers and Bums - Oh My!

I am a fan of the internet and social media and aside from learning new things when I go to events like the workshop that  Tenkara Guides LLC put on recently I get to meet people that I know through these various forums and websites.  This particular particular workshop was really like a "Who's Who in Tenkara Fishing in The USA" because there were a lot of influential and well known tenkara anglers that I know had only known through various websites until this workshop.

First up, the Tenkara Badger himself, all the way Wisconsin, he has some great rods that I hope to cast here before the summer is out.   He caught a great brown trout a few moments later, I might add!

Then there was Tom from Teton Tenkara, who is a very knowledgeable tenkara angler whose blog I checkout often.

I also met again DragonTail Tenkara as he was fishing this great spot.  Make sure and check him out, he has a great selection of tenkara rods, one of which the ShadowFire, I demoed earlier this year and it's a great rod.

I met some new tenkara bums at the workshop, as they fished both days, on this lovely stream in eastern Utah..

 

And on the Middle Provo.. 

Over the past few years there have been tenkara gatherings started across the globe and the United States, such as the Appalachian  Tenkara Jam, held in Maryland.  There is also the Midwest Tenkara Fest held in Wisconsin.  Of course there's the one that started it all, Tenkara USA's Tenkara Summit, that has been held in a few different locations including Utah in 2012.  

As things in my life change, I intend to get to these events and photograph them too and do a book about Tenkara in the USA.

Brian

Tenkara No Oni

I recently  had the pleasure of being able to be a part of a unique fishing workshop put on by Tenkara Guides LLC, where they brought Master angler, Masami “Tenkara No Oni” Sakakibara from Japan for three days; it was a wonderful workshop that offered many great photographic opportunities.  

Watching "No Oni" as he works a stretch of river, casting and scrambling in and out of the water was amazing to say the least, his cast is beautiful too.  I hope that when I am his age, I am agile as he is.

Tenkara No Oni in action in the water

And out of the water..

While I wasn't participating in the workshop, I learned a few things by watching Tenkara Oni, that I will take with me the next time I go fishing. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to have been at this workshop with my cameras, from what I could tell from my own observations and talking with the participants the workshop was a success.  
A big thanks to Tenkara Guides LLC, for letting me tag along and be their "unofficial photographer" and thank you as well Tenkara No Oni, for letting me photograph you..    

Brian

More color

I don't shoot a lot of color, so I thought I'd post this photograph, from the Tenkara Guides LLC workshop on its own, because the rest will be in black and white.

I don't always know what I will post here, most of the time the photographs I post here are the ones that I truly feel are the strongest photographs from a particular roll or batch of rolls; other times the photographs I post here are the ones that I get the most comments or "Favorites" or views from my Flickr stream.  
At this time, this photograph has been viewed 191 times and has been marked as a "Favorite" by five of my "Followers" on Flickr, which is a lot more than any of the others I have recently posted.

That being said, and because I haven't had a lot of photographic opportunities so far this year and because all of the other photographs I plan on posting about the workshop are all in black and white, I thought I'd post this one.  

I have three more rolls that I need to have processed before I can make my post about the workshop, that will have to wait a few weeks.  If anyone out there would be interested in being a patron,  please contact me!

Brian

Oncorhynchus clarki utah

I don't shoot a lot of color film, , it's mostly a choice of liking black and white better and for the most part black and white conveys the timelessness and dreamy qualities that I am going for much better.

That being said, I like shooting color film, Fujichrome Velvia 100 in this case, especially when it comes to photographs of fish, like this Bonneville Cutthroat for example.

I have caught a few Bonneville Cutties in my time, but none as beautiful as this one, which was on a tiny tributary in eastern Utah, during a tenkara workshop put on by Tenkara Guides LLC.

I have more from the two days I was there at the unique and amazing workshop they put on, but I love this photograph so much and it's different from what I normally shoot, that I thought I'd put this one out now..

Fish on!

Brian

The Bridge

Bridges serve many purposes, from their intended purpose of crossing a body of water or a great span between two geographical features, as well as serving as a landmark.  If you are into fishing, they are especially great to fish near as well, which is what I did for the first time by this bridge.

You may recognize bridge and may have even fished there, but I enjoyed fishing there with one of my Army buddies..

Brian

Fall For Tenkara

Fall is a great time for fishing and my most recent outing on a small creek in Utah county, reminded me of that.  

One of the things I like about fall, when it comes to photography anyway, is the quality of light that occurs at this time of the year; it's so warm, soft and direct it's hard to make bad photographs when you have such great light.

I hope you like these two photographs, if you do, please comment or share  this post online somewhere.  I'd love to hear what you think about these to fall fishing photographs or how you came across my blogsite.  

My hope is that if enough people share this post that it will repair the internet, since some photographs by another photographer that were recently published "Broke The Internet".

Thanks,

Brian

The Tower

I was fishing recently on a stretch of  river that I had been to before, but hadn't been quite so far up as I had been on this particular occasion. 

As I kept fishing further up stream I saw this tower and kept hoping my buddy would  move into the right spot so I could photograph him fishing with the tower in the background. 

Thankfully he did.

 

By this time I had put my rod down and watched him for a bit and then he moved and I came away with this photograph. 

While this "tower" wasn't all that big, it was quite the visual magnate being so close to the river and all..

Brian

Streamers

As part of my fly fishing experience, I also tie flies, and some of my favorites to tie and fish with are streamers...

One way I like to tie streamers is by using a cool product by the FlyMen Fishing Company, called Fish-Skulls

I tied up a few earlier this year, for an adventure down the Green River, so naturally I had to photograph them as well..

I am still trying to master my macro technique, because out of the twelve images I could have gotten, I only had three useable ones, with these two being the ones I thought were the better images.

Note to self:  When you are using the "blub" setting, make sure and set it back to the "normal" shutter speed or at least check that it is when you are outdoors!
Brian

A little tenkara fishing...

It's been a while, I know.  It's not that I haven't been out fishing, it's just that I haven't had a lot of opportunities for photographs, not only that, when I have been out, the fishing has been pretty good, damn good for me actually.
My last outing was awesome, I caught about eight trout, most of which were browns, but I also caught a nice cutthroat too.
We were tenkara fishing, but in the not so "traditional" sense of the word, we were doing it the outlaw way, we were "Tenkara Outlaws"....

What's a "Tenkara Outlaw" you ask?
Some will also call this style of fly fishing, American tenkara fishing and I have even heard it called "Punk Rock" tenkara fishing too.
In it's simplest terms it's a blending of western style fly fishing and tenkara fly fishing where you make it your own, whatever that means. 
 
In "outlaw tenkara" fishing, you use the same long reel-less tenkara fly rod and a fixed amount of line, but after that things differ in many ways.
As was the case in this particular outing we were using a fixed length of line, a level line,  western style flies, two actually and a strike indicator.
I have even heard of others using western style weight forward floating lines and even sinking lines on their tenkara rods.

So if you think that you have to be a traditionalist when it comes to tenkara fishing, I urge you to think outside of the traditional box and be a tenkara outlaw.

Brian

Old Photographs Revisted

I have been reading Jason Landry's book, Instant Connections  lately and it caused me to revisit a particular group of images I took back in October of 2009.  It is often said that you as the photographer are your own worst editor, to which I am guilty of, mostly because my circle of friends is rather limited.
When I first got the roll of film back I did what I do every time I get a roll of film back, I gave it a quick once over while slide each strip into its respective slot on the file page, then I wait for a short bit and then I give them a good look at. I usually select the negative or negatives to print based on that initial gut feeling, which was the case in this first photograph.

 
This particular photograph and moment was the one the editors chose to accompany the write up about me that appeared in Fly Rod & Reel magazine after all, so it must be the better moment. Right?

I generally go back over my negatives,months and sometimes years later,  just to see if one that I didn't print was better then the one I did, and reading Instant Connections has caused me to look at the other three moments I took that fall day in 2009.

Looking at the third frame, the following photograph was the first one I made of this angler and scene.

Looking at it now as I did then, I think passing over it was the right choice.  I don't think this photograph  was the right one, the composition and framing just don't work.

 Moving on to the next frame on the roll, is the one, I initially selected,  but when I look at the next frame after that, I begin to wonder, was it really the better photograph.  The differences are subtle between the two photographs, but there are a few, that cause me to wonder.

Can you see the differences?  I don't know how many seconds or so the two are part, but I am sure there are several considering the slowness involved in advancing the film on a Holga.

But then, there is this photograph the fourth and last photograph of this angler and scene.

While this is a completely different moment than the other photographs, I am not sure why I am now just putting it out there for the first time..


I guess it proves that sometimes you have to live with the photographs you take and go back to them every once in a while...
So you tell me, is the first photograph I choose, the better one or are any of the other three better? 

Brian

Weather

I fished the Weber River recently and while I didn't catch any fish, I did manage to get this photograph that I feel captured the day well.  It was an early October day and we experienced a number of different types of weather from rain, to snow to seasonally warm temperatures to seasonally cold temperatures.

While I have fished the Weber before, I hadn't fished this particular section, so I enjoyed  fishing this new section.

Brian

More panos

I have been using my 6x12 HolgaPan camera a lot lately and so I thought I'd post a couple of more photographs from it.
These were both on the same six exposure roll, but were made about about a month apart on the Provo River.

And this one, which was done in early August..

I really like the format of this camera, I think the images I have done so for will make for a great next book.

Variation

When I first got my 6x12 Pan, one of the things I wanted to do was to continue with the double exposure "trout dreams" theme, so on a recent outing to my favorite river, I was able to make one such photograph.

I like it and am going to continue to explore this variation on the "trout dreams" theme. My next book might even be compromised entirely of photographs using the new camera.

In some ways I think this panoramic format is really more like my dreams, because when I close my eyes, my dreams tend to span across the inside of both of my eyes. 

When you dream, what do you dream about?
Brian

New camera Holga 6x12 Pan, New Photographs

I got a new camera recently, a Holga 6x12 Panoramic Camera, as with all of my Holgas I had it modified by my friend Randy "The Holga Mods Guy". Make sure and check out his 6x12 page to see what my camera looks like,the "Holga Lens" one as he calls it, mine is pretty much like the red one pictured.
So naturally I had to go fishing to try it out..
I was fortunate to have some time away from work recently that allowed me to go fishing twice in one week, and far as fishing goes I was equally as fortunate to be able to go with two very different, two very experienced tenkara anglers, that I have befriended over the past couple of years.
My new camera's maiden voyage was on a small stream with my friend "Tenkara Elevated".

I had a couple of other photographs of him, but this one really captures the peacefulness of the urban spot we were fishing; and while I didn't catch any fish at this spot, I am happy to report that later in the day at another spot I did.  I am grateful that I was able to fish him, because I certainly learned a few things fishing him that day. 
Later in the week I took my new Holga 6x12 with another friend, ERiK, from Tenkara Guides LLC. a local guide service which was  one of  the first Tenkara USA Certified guide services.  They boys at Tenkara Guides are a great group, who are very community oriented  too, so check them out.
We went to a place I have driven by or ridden by on my mountain bike many times in my life, and I never thought I'd fish there, but was it a great place to fish, it was certainly the most technical place I have ever fished considering how small the stream was and how fast the water was moving down the narrow granite canyon. It was great fishing with ERiK, because I sure learned a lot from him too, I don't think I would have caught a trout had I not been with him.
The first place we stopped had some graffiti, on the remnants of what I'd call a man made ditch made of concrete and steel.  It was a cool place to fish for sure which made fora really cool photograph as well.

We continued to fish up the narrow canyon, and I eventually caught a fish and we later came upon this scene.

 
You can see the other photographs I made with my Holga 6x12 Pano, on my Flickr stream if you like, and if you like them leave a comment here and let me know.
All  in all I'd say that my first two outings with my new camera were pretty successful which has got me thinking  about ideas for my next book...

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

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

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

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