Welcome to my head - surf’s pumping, bass are feeding, but the light is going off as well. What do I do? Help!

On Monday I talked you through a good surf session I had, so I am sure you will understand completely when I tell you that I couldn’t resist fishing the same place the next afternoon because the forecast was looking good for it. My mate Andy was up for a session so we arranged a rough time to meet on the beach, but instead of talking you through the fishing - good but not quite as good as the day before - I thought you might enjoy getting inside my (cracked) head when I am faced with the sort of dilemmas this particular fishing session presented to me…………..

The surf was in good shape but the swell had dropped a little bit, the water clarity was okay but not quite as green as the day before, and when I looked outside before heading to the beach the skies were very grey and murky and low. Good light and conditions for bass fishing, but not exactly the greatest for my photography. It doesn’t change a thing though - I never, ever go out fishing without at least one camera and plus lens or lenses. I just can’t do it. I have tried but my head got the better of me and I went back home to grab the proper camera gear. I know that mobile phones are pretty amazing these days, but the simple fact is that they don’t give you the control or options that fully customisable mirrorless cameras plus interchangeable lenses do. Photography is as much a part of my fishing as actually fishing and it means a huge amount to me.

Anyway, so before I head out to the beach I do my usual bit of thinking about what camera gear to take with me. Anything I take has to fit inside my 40L size Savage Gear Waterproof Rollup Rucksack which will be put down somewhere away from the actual fishing, but there’s enough room because my lures are always at my side in a waist/side-style bag. Inside that waterproof rucksack will go one of two different insert-style padded camera bag things, depending on how much stuff I take. I’m always going to take at least one camera body - these days it’s the Sony A7IV, the single best camera I have ever shot with, amazing bit of kit - and then I need to make a decision about what lens or lenses to take with me (plus spare batteries, polarising filter, flashgun if needs be, etc.). The lens choice doesn’t always depend only on weather or the actual fishing or how far I might need to walk or wade or scramble and so on. I also tend to gauge it on who I am fishing with - if indeed I am fishing with somebody else - and what type of bass fishing we are going to try and do. Surf fishing tends to call for a longer lens because you can stay a bit further back from getting water all over your gear, you might want to hide where you are fishing, and being able to isolate the angler in amongst the waves and water can look really good. But wide shots can also look really good as well if things go your way.

I know that when I go surf fishing with my mate Mark he is keener to stay a bit further back from the crashing waves so I am unlikely to get any “right in amongst it with a wide lens” sort of photos. He catches lots of bass in the surf and he can put lures out a country mile if need be, and surf fishing isn’t always about distance anyway. Very often you’re getting hit not far from where you are standing. When I am surf fishing with Mark I tend to use a longer lens a bit more, whereas when I am surf fishing with Andy as I was on Saturday, I know he is more prone to wading out a bit deeper and getting more in amongst the turbulent stuff. I still need a longer lens but I know that I might sometimes get the chance to get up closer to him with a wide lens and shoot some different stuff. Also bear in mind that the lads are there to fish and I will always do all I can not to hassle them or detract from what they love to do. I am bloody lucky that I get to fish with good anglers who are perfectly comfortable around me and my camera gear. Thanks guys.

In a perfect world I’d be seamlessly chopping and changing between the three f2.8 Tamron lenses I have here - the 17-28mm, the 28-75mm, and the 70-180mm. All three lenses on my Sony camera are staggeringly good, indeed it’s the first time I have been 100% happy shooting at f2.8 which I think fishing lends itself to at times. I don’t do pixel-peeping like a lot of the internet photographers do, but damn these lenses are good, plus they are nice and light and they share the same filter sizes which makes life easier. And then I have what I call my compromise lens, the Tamron 28-200mm, a lens which allows you to shoot a wide range of focal lengths without needing to change lenses which is a pain when you’re photographing surf fishing especially. The trade off is that at the 200mm end this lens is only a relatively slow f5.6, and this in turn affects the depth of field and the ISOs you can shoot handheld in lower light especially. Again though, I don’t do pixel-peeping plus noise reduction software is amazing these days, and it’s still f2.8 at the widest 28mm end. If you really get anal about it, this “compromise” lens isn’t quite as razor sharp as the f2.8 Tamron zooms, but in print and online nobody would ever notice and it’s an incredibly useful lens for very sensible money.

So already I hope you can see that quite aside from having to decide on what lures and rods and reels to take out fishing, I expend at least as much brain power on thinking about camera gear, who I am fishing with, and where and how we are intending to fish. Saturday’s session was with Andy in the surf, the light wasn’t looking very good when I left home but I knew that if the light did ever get interesting that with how Andy fishes I might get the chance to shoot long and wide, and I don’t really want to be having to go back to my rucksack to change lenses all the time and potentially miss shots. Really good light rarely lasts long. I packed the Sony A7IV camera body and the Tamron 28-200 lens and headed off to the beach.

I had also given myself a bit of a talking to about missing a lot of the fishing the day before with Mark because I couldn’t stop taking photos when he was into fish and the light and conditions were pretty good. Photography is as much about work as it is just wanting to do it because I love it, but I also love fishing, and I love it when the surf goes off and you get those awesome hits from bass. When I got to the beach before Andy on Saturday I was into fish fairly quickly and the light really wasn’t up to much so I made the decision to really concentrate on my fishing and try to forget about taking photos.

Andy turned up a bit later on and then my head started playing around with me. I’m standing in the surf catching the odd bass, as indeed is Andy, and the light remains resolutely flat. But the surf is building on the rapidly flooding tide and I know all about how a longer lens with an angler in the surf can actually look pretty good almost whatever the light is doing. I resist though, and I carry on fishing - for all of about another five minutes before that little bastard in my head literally makes me leave the surf, walk back to my rucksack, get the camera gear out, and start shooting a few photos.

Andy goes and hooks a bass when I am trained on him at the 200mm end of the Tamron 28-200 lens - a longer lens help compress the angler almost “into” the surf if that makes sense - so all is not lost and I shoot some stuff I am pretty happy with but I know it’s not exactly shiver-inducing surf fishing photography. I manage to silence the little bastard in my head and I head back to my rucksack, pack the camera gear away, and pick my rod up again to get back to some fishing myself.

All is going just fine until the light suddenly starts getting rather interesting. I try closing my eyes - not great with rapidly advancing waves - and try to pretend that the light is still pretty flat and boring. But there he is again, the little bastard in my head, burrowing away at my resolve with the fact that when the light gets interesting you have got a situation which will never quite repeat itself. Come on Henry, how could you ever forgive yourself if you miss a shot? The little bastard even suggests to me how good it could look with the rapidly improving light and the wide end of the lens and right in amongst all the turbulence with Andy. I honestly try as hard as I can to resist the little bastard because the bass are on the feed and I seriously love this kind of fishing - but I can’t. The little bastard wins yet again and I rush back to my rucksack, dump the rod down, and pick the camera gear up.

The light right now just screams for me to get right into the surf and shoot wide at 28mm f2.8. I do just that and I also try my utmost to keep the camera and lens dry whilst shooting the living daylights out of it because Andy’s hooking fish and he doesn’t mind getting right in amongst the tumbling water and getting a bit wet. I’ve got the shakes because I am pretty sure I’m shooting some really cool stuff and it excites me like you would not believe, but also the other little bastard in my head is now imploring me to get back to the fishing. The first little bastard holds out though until I lose the light and then I head back to my rucksack, put the camera gear away, and get back to fishing with the second little bastard telling me how awesome I am. I have done this fishing photography thing for long enough now to know that something pretty special just happened, and moments like that don’t come around very often.

So I am back in the surf with my lure rod in hand. I can’t even remember now if I caught any more bass, but I am frigging buzzing. Both little bastards are keeping quiet and I am just loving the moment but also I can’t wait to properly check the photos on my big computer monitor at home and see if the photos look as good as I hoped they did.

And then the bloody light starts going off again. This tends to happen when bad weather breaks and of course I embrace it as a fishing photography addict, but the second little bastard implores me to keep fishing because you can’t catch fish if you’re taking photos. The first little bastard pipes up on the left side of my head though and niggles away with the fact that wow the light is getting really good again - but different to before - and how on earth can I possibly ignore it?

The first little bastard bloody wins again for the third time that session. I head back to my rucksack - Storm is wondering what the hell is going on by now - dump the lure rod, and break open the camera gear again. The light is getting so good that I can work the different anglers with all different focal lengths and use all that I know to really try and make this surf fishing thing look as good as possible. Andy hooks a fish or two just when I need him to yet again - the lad can fish! - and I am ripping off frame after frame because the first little bastard is keeping me shooting. I love it. I can fish properly next time I am out if I can just keep that first little bastard quiet - which I can’t. Two little bastards in my head and which one wins depends on what nature chooses to put in front of me and how strong my resolve might be. Let’s face it though, you know how weak I am around fishing tackle - multiply that by ten and you’re getting close to how bad I am at resisting the physical need to shoot photographs.

To top it all off the clocks change in the early hours of Sunday morning and at 3.30am I wake with a start because both little bastards are on at me to start editing, keywording, processing and backing up the mass of RAW files I shot and downloaded on Saturday. Downstairs I head, I say good morning to Storm and chuck her out to do what she needs to do, on goes the kettle, I make myself a cup of coffee, and to my office I head to start working on the photos you can see here while normal people sleep and perhaps even have a Sunday morning lie in. Welcome to my head! It can’t be right, surely? I wish my dad was still alive because we loved talking about photography together and he used to really enjoy reading this blog when I write posts like this. I miss you so much dad. This one’s for you…………..

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