Weekend Notes

Just in case you haven’t checked his blog in awhile, my friend Reed Curry over at the Contemplative Angler is releasing a book this fall. The book is entitled The New Scientific Angling: Trout and Ultraviolet Vision. Reed posted a couple of articles on his blog awhile back that first explored this idea. Personally, I think it has the potential to really change the way people think about tying flies. In fact, I think it’s the coolest idea in fly tying that I’ve seen since taking up the sport. If nothing else it’ll provide me with just one more excuse on a tough day: “Well, I probably would have caught several nice trout, but I haven’t been able to locate those Bolivian scarlet titmouse feathers with the proper UV characteristics, either that or the weather’s got ‘em holed up somewhere.”

A new online fishing magazine was released recently which I’ve enjoyed: Fish Can’t Read. The folks over at Chiwulff and Singlebarbed have all been involved. I highly recommend you take a look. These online magazines with the flipbook format seem to really be catching on lately. There are two others that I’m aware of: Catch and This is Fly. Of the three, Fish Can’t Read and Catch are more along what I like. This is Fly is pretty cool, and I probably would have liked it if I’d been into fly fishing as a teenager, but the style is just a bit over the top for me now. I don’t know how long the flipbook format will persist, but something like this is likely the future of fly fishing periodicals. I’m surprised the paper magazines haven’t caught on. Also, this is just my opinion mind you, but I think making the magazines freely accessible is the way to go as well. People will probably cease paying for magazines whether online or not just due to the fact that so much information is out there freely available. I know I have. I’ve got a single straggling subscription left that I’m strongly considering doing away with. It’s really just a waste of money and a waste of storage space to store the old magazines (which I never can bring myself to throw away). If you publish good work, you can probably get enough revenue to support it through advertising.

I’m still working on my Glacier photos. The truth is I’ve really struggled finding time to work on the website here or work on photography or go fishing or even take a walk in the woods. I can’t even put my finger on the problem. “Things” just seem busy lately. I know the job’s been more stressful. Heck, I don’t know. But I do know this: something’s got to give. It has become abundantly clear to everyone around me that I need to be in the outdoors. If I’m not, things get rather ugly rather quickly. Still, I have played around with my photos a bit. Lately I’ve become interested in black and white and “sort of” black and white photos. One thing I discovered about myself on the Glacier trip: I really enjoy working with photography. I still need lots of work to be anywhere close to good, but I do honestly enjoy it. Anyone who reads the site knows I’ve sort of been into photography for awhile, but usually I’m too involved in the fishing to concentrate on it. Glacier offered a chance to focus. I got up at daylight nearly every day of the trip for photos, and several evenings found me waiting for just the right light at some photogenic spot. I’ve GOT to start updating the photoblog more often. Here’s another of my better shots:

Swiftcurrent Lake and Many Glacier Valley in the early morning.

I recently read a wonderful little book of essays on fine art photography by Brooks Jensen entitled Letting Go of the Camera. Jensen publishes the magazine LensWork, one of the best out there. Check out the book if you’re the least interested in fine art photography or even just the life of a fine art photographer.

Take care,
Nathan