Photography Difficulty

Here is the link to the photo album of my trip. I lament my poor skills as a photographer. Excuses follow.

One of the biggest favors a fishing buddy can do for you is to help you take a picture. When you fish alone, each catch-and-release photo becomes a comedy; you have to get the camera out with one hand, hold it in your mouth for a moment, make sure it doesn't get wet, hold it at very awkward angles while making sure not to swim, and all the while the fish is understandably trying to take advantage of the improved opportunity to make an escape. Often enough, the leader gets wrapped around your leg and snaps, or the hook just pops out, exactly in the moment before you were going to take the picture.

That's why most of the decent pictures of fish are pictures of dead fish. Dead fish (which are of course headed for the fry pan) are quite the opposite of the live ones, even allowing you to set up a timer and take the classic shite-eating grin shot. Every once in a while you do score on a live fish, as with this lucky flash shot of an Agulukpak bow:



I took some films that amused me, and I hope you will enjoy them too. But they too suffer from bad filming conditions. Most times I started filming too late, or stopped too soon, to get the good stuff. This clip of a bear running along the Tikchik river is an example; just before I started filming, the bear was making a really strange roaring sound. And then, right after I stopped filming, partly out of a desire to have both hands on the paddle if the bear came down, well, the bear came down! He crashed into the water right near me, stood up on his hind legs to get a good look, and then ran away up the riverbank as though the water were boiling hot. This was spectacular, and would have made a great film clip.

I think many of the pictures could use some explaining. For instance, "who is this George Taylor in Ekwok? What, and where, is Ekwok?" In the past I used to write such verbiage into the photo album pages, but now I'll address those issues haphazardly here in my blog. I'd like to devote a whole entry to Ekwok, which is one of the most unique towns I have seen within the borders of the United States. George is perhaps the nicest guy in that town. If you're curious, tune back in later for details.