Wednesday 22 April 2009

Some more fishing in black and white

  • I have been messing around again with converting some of my photos over to black and white, and here are a few of the latest results. It does seem that the steelhead fishing over in BC (Canada) really lends itself to black and white, due mainly to the incredibly moody conditions, staggering backdrops, and long double-handed fly rods. It was monsooning it down in the photo you can see above, but the swirling mist and clouds with a vast mountain surround really made the place light up through the viewfinder. I believe that the black and white conversion has emphasised the moodiness of the photo - comments most welcome.
  • Just a brief glimpse of sun was enough to light up the snow-covered peaks behind the angler (Pete McLeod of Aardvark McLeod) as he really goes into the power stroke of another smooth Spey cast. I have gone for a very deliberate contrasty conversion to highlight the fisherman, the cast, and the mountains behind.
  • Still one of the most impressive places on this earth that I have ever had the good fortune to photograph, British Columbia is on a scale that I don't think I ever really got my head around during my brief visit. The type of area that stuns you into a kind of submission the first time you go, it really is that special, and one of those places that I so badly want to go back to and see it again. Steelhead fishing is a cult thing, and I completely understand why so many anglers give themselves over to it. Still the only place I have ever photographed that arguably looked a whole lot better the worse the weather was. And we got the lot when we were over there !!

  • One of our own UK rainbow trout, and a shot that I always reckoned would look good in black and white - from the moment I framed it up in fact. I just like the way the highlights on the body of the trout allow me to really bring the shadows down and still make for a photo with a degree of simple impact.

  • You can see a load more of my black and white photos right here, with some new ones loaded up. I am having a new website built at the moment, so there will be more news on that as and when it is done. The stuff I have seen so far looks very cool indeed....

4 comments:

Ali said...

Really stunning images here.

Did you do any alterations ie contrast/brightness ?

Stuart said...

"monsooning it down" what a brilliant description :)

Stu
Sea Fishing and Walking in the UK

Anonymous said...

Don't let them of the Hook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqLO4oZpRoo

Henry Gilbey said...

Ali - for all my black and white conversions, I use the most stunning bit of software called "Silver Efex Pro" by NIK software. See the link here, and you can download a free 15 day trial

http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/en/entry.php

Stuart - thanks, rather like that one myself !!

Thanks for the video link to Nigel's speech, will post a link up on the blog.