Feels strange to do, but I need to try and keep getting better at taking photos of myself fishing

For many years I very deliberately shied away from being the angler in the photographs as much as possible. I guess this comes from firstly from me being the actual photographer most of the time, plus I can’t really give my cameras to other anglers to ask them to shoot some photos of me because I can’t recall fishing with anybody yet who seems to be able to focus and compose and shoot half-decent photos with the sort of camera gear I use - plus anglers obviously and quite rightly want to fish and not take photos - and then there has always been this degree of reticence to me being the subject of the photos. I did quite enough in front of the camera stuff with my minor TV work to annoy anybody for a lifetime, plus the truth be told I am an outrageous photo-snob and bad photos bug the hell out of me……………..

But the simple fact is that I need photographs of fishing for a heap of different reasons, this blog being one of them of course. The problem if you like is that these days I fish a lot more on my own than I used to, mainly because one mate has bought a bigger boat and fishes from that most of the time now, and another mate doesn’t fish very much. I really like fishing with other people who I like and trust, but I am also happy to head out on my own if need be. I work for myself so I can go fishing at times when other people might not be able to, and because I live so near to so much fishing I can also go at short notice and without loads of planning which might need to change anyway.

So I am not exactly going to be able to shoot many photos of what I categorise here in my (massive) library as “Fishing Action” - angler plus rod and reel, fishing away on location - if I didn’t get more into shooting photos of myself fishing away. For sure I shoot a lot of what I categorise as “Close Ups” because I also require plenty of gear shots - as per above for example - but “Fishing Action” shots can say a lot in an easy way. For sure I’d also love more grip and grins or detail shots of bass or wrasse and so on, but this isn’t so easy when you are fishing on your own. It’s why I put together a very simple video like the one below from a few months ago - catch the fish (on my own) and then work backwards to create some (relatively) meaningful content.

If required I can take some (distinctly average) screenshots from the video to use as a bit of a grip and grin say on social media, but I still haven’t worked out a way to shoot “proper”, high-res grip and grins of myself with a bass on the big cameras when I am fishing on my own. If you know anything about where exactly you need to focus etc., then you will know how hard it is to achieve, plus my priority is always the welfare of the fish. I am not going to mess around for ages to try and nail the right (still) image of me with a fish and risk doing harm to it. I have come to accept that (distinctly average video grab) shots are fine for some social media uses, but when you need high-res and pin-sharp images for something like magazine or book use, I don’t even try for a grip and grin of me plus fish. I might be able to get a few “hand in mouth” shots of the fish in the water perhaps, but I am not about to start shooting crappy “fish lying on a rock or sand next to somebody’s great big boot” photos I keep seeing and which as a photo-snob make me weep!

A few years ago I started to experiment more with putting my camera on a mini-tripod (currently this one here, it’s pretty damn good) and trying to nail “Fishing Action” photos of me fishing away. It was fairly hit and miss to start with, but the more you do something the better you should get, so whilst I make the odd mistake now with framing up, for the most part I am okay at getting pin-sharp photos of me actually fishing. I have also managed to start consistently nailing photos of myself bending a lure rod in the cast, and this requires shooting a lot of photos and then deleting most of them on my computer. Over time I found a fairly reliable way to remotely start and stop the camera’s motor drive to nail casting shots, and there are various ways I have found to shoot regular “Fishing Action” shots remotely as well.

What you do end up with a lot of the time when a camera is in a fixed position and away from any risk of getting swamped is photos from behind or just about the side. It’s rare that I can place the camera in front of me and remotely shoot photos of myself - so much easier when you are the photographer and can be fully mobile - but I was fishing a new bit of ground the other day and managed to nail a few for example. I am somewhat obsessive about using the right photos if I talk about fishing gear on here - specific rod or reel or waders or something like that - hence me trying to fire away when possible for my photo library. I would rather be shooting other anglers but as I said I often fish on my own and I still need photos. I also can’t keep asking mates to use specific bits of fishing tackle just because Henry needs photos of it being used.

There is a strong argument that I should be a bit more modern and shoot more video when I am out fishing, but I discovered very quickly that you can’t protect where you are fishing if you really want to properly do video stuff, and trying to shoot both stills and video impacts on actually fishing too much. I am thinking more about videos that I could make which don’t have to revolve around catching fish and blowing locations, but at heart I am a stills photographer and I am actually rather enjoying the challenge of trying to get better at shooting photos of myself fishing away. I am just about able to sort and edit and process the photos and separate the fact that it’s now me in some of them!