Louisiana Sportsman July 2009
The July 2009 issue of Louisiana Sportsman has been delivered to you by now, or you have picked up your copy at your local stand. The magazine sometimes runs two different covers for north and south Louisiana, and I was fortunate enough to have both cover shots this month. My favorite story to work on was about wade fishing, and I got to see first hand how two of Calcasieu Lake’s best wade anglers do it. Here’s what I’ve got this month.
- Great 8 – Get out of the boat, and follow these eight tips to catch fish that will make you a STAR contender.
- Sweating to the Hits – Give these techniques a try, and crappie fishing may just become one of your favorite summer pastimes.
- Life in the Fast Lane – There’s one Super Highway that centralizes trout activity on Calcasieu Lake this month.
- Freshwater Cover
- Saltwater Cover
Mississippi Sportsman July 2009
The July issue of Mississippi Sportsman begins a run of features for me that will be published each month through the rest of 2009. This was a fun issue to work on for me, as I was able to catch some slab crappie with two members from the Magnolia Crappie Club. Here’s what I’ve got in this issue.
- High-Rez Crappie – Members of the Magnolia Crappie Club have dubbed 2009 “The Year of the Big Crappie” at Ross Barnett Reservoir in Jackson. The “Rez” isn’t historically known for big crappie, but there have been more 3-pounders caught this year than tournament director Hugh Krutz can remember in his 13 years of fishing Barnett.
South Carolina Sportsman Cover Shot
This is the cover of the July 2009 South Carolina Sportsman. I was fortunate to have one of my images selected for the cover shot.
Sporting Clays Fundraiser at Cajun Elite Shooting Complex in Evangeline, LA to Benifit a Family in Need
flyerbenefit – This link takes you to a PDF file of the fundraiser flyer.
Brennon Matthew born January 13th,2004 & William Isaac born September 4th, 2008 are brothers that share one single trait. They were both born with a condition called Hydrocephalus. This is a condition where excessive fluid is accu-mulated in the brain. A ventricular shunt system is required from birth to be surgically placed in the brain to help with the condition.
Although, this will be an onging issue throughout their lives and both of these beautiufl boys have had to endure many surgeries in their young life but must face many more challenges throughout their development.BJ and Megan have three children and were in no way prepared for the boys to be born both with such a condition.
BJ works for Island Operating and is a great father and Megan has devoted all her time to her children and trying to get her small business off the ground to benefit of her family.This young couple has had major medical expenses piling up against them and they are struggling to keep their head above water. The ever growing medical expenses will continue to go on and we are asking your help in giving this young family a chance.
A special organisation called Friends Supporting Friends is going to help put on a benefit in con-junction with a Sporting Clay Shoot to help raise money to ease the large medical bill backlog that is a burden on this family.If you are interested in volunteering or donating Items for auction or anything please contact Kristy Garber 824-4176, Kasey Henderson 523-2788, or for information concerning the shoot please contact Kim Carswell @ Cajun Elite 824-2110 or kim@cajunelite.comneedDiamond
The link above will take you to a PDF file of the flyer with more information about the event. Please take a look at it and help out any way you can.
Improve Your Low-Light Fishing Pictures
If you want your nighttime or low-light images to look better, your best bet is to shoot with a longer shutter speed rather than a fast one. However, the problem with longer shutter speeds at night makes it almost impossible to hand-hold your camera. The trick is to shoot in manual mode. I know that sounds a little intimidating if you know little about cameras, but shooting in manual mode gives you ultimate control over your final exposure. If you have a point-and-shoot, you could try the night mode, but I’m not sure you would get the same results.
If I want to expose the background to give a sense of place at night, I first bump up my ISO to 1600 or even 3200 if needed. Then I dial in a shutter speed of 1/60 and aperture of f4.0, shoot and adjust. After several failed attempts at this image, I finally dialed in an exposure at 1/15 and f2.8 at 3200.
This super slow exposure meant I would have to put my camera on a tripod to keep it from getting blurry. However, putting my camera on a tripod in a bouncing bay boat wouldn’t be much good, so I had no choice but to hand hold my camera. I knew my settings would expose the background, that that also meant my subject in the foreground would be almost completely in shadow. That’s why I popped up the flash.
I didn’t just pop the flash and shoot, though. I dialed down my flash exposure compensation two stops (-2) and fired away. The flash was just enough to freeze my subject in the foreground, and the longer shutter speed allowed the light from the rig to shine on in. Is the rig super sharp? No, but having an slightly fuzzy illuminated rig in the background is a lot better in my opinion than a giant black shadow like the image below.
Of course the final outcome is all about what you want. If you want a black background, shoot on automatic and fire away. However, if you want to give your viewer a better sense of place during low-light situations, practice shooting on manual, and let the light shine on in.
Louisiana Sportsman June 2009
I’m running a little late putting up my stuff for June. As you noticed in the post below this one, I spent a few weeks in Tennessee with limited resources. The June issue of Louisiana Sportsman features three of my articles and lots of good images, including the South Louisiana cover.
Here’s what I have this month:
- Thermos Trout – Beat the crowds out of the Lafitte docks, and you’ll beat them back with a box full of specks. I worked with Captain Chris Pike with Bourgeois Charters on this one, and that’s him on the saltwater cover.
- Turn Back Time – Not getting any bites on your new-fangled speck lures? Then party like it’s 1969. These lures used to catch trout, and they still do if you can find them.
- Keep It Simple, Stupid – There are no guarantees in fishing, but the South Pass jetties are about as close as it gets. Captain Shawn Lanier showed me just how good the fishing can be at this long line of rocks as far south as you can go in Plaquemines Parish.
- Saltwater Cover
Relaxing a Little in Tennessee and Getting Some Good Photographs
I’ve been hanging out in Townsend, Tennessee for a few weeks with my family. My dad built a cabin as close to the Smokey Mountain National Park as he could without actually being in the park. He did all the work with the help of a couple of his cousins and my older brother. We’ve been riding through Cade’s Cove, which is a treasure trove of outdoor photography opportunities. I’ve photographed several whitetail bucks in velvet, hundreds of gobblers and even a few black bear. Check out the bear cubs hanging off Mama Bear’s food supply in the bear picture above. It was simply amazing to be able to sit there and watch those little cubs do their thing.
Venice Fishing Bad Because Of High Water
The water at Venice is as high as it’s ever been excet for hurricanes. Fished entire east side today with zero fish except for blue fish and lady fish. Swells are still rolling in from the LOW even though wind was down.
Previous Post
The May issue of Louisiana Sportsman should have arrived in your mailboxes and news stands by now. This was a busy issue for me because I had four assignments for May. Seeing as how all the fishing, freshwater and saltwater, is in full swing by now, this issue does a good job covering both.
Here’s what I’ve got this month.
- Diversionary Tactics – Cataouatche Lake just to the southwest of New Orleans has been a surprisingly awesome bass fishery for a few years now. This year, double-digit bass started showing up.
- Change of Pace – Captain Eric Dumas and Chas Champagne are known for pulling giant trout off the Lake Pontchartrain bridges. However, when they want a little peace and quiet, they get out there topwater plug and look for a waking redfish.
- River Rat Rules – The Ouachita, Red and Mississippi Rivers are heavily fished in Louisiana. Three anglers that spends lots of time on each share their tips on putting more bass in the boat.
- From Fresh to Salt – Captain Charlie Thomason discovered the potential of big swim baits during a redfish tournament in Texas. Since then, they have become one of his most productive big trout lures for fishing east of New Orleans.
- North Louisiana Cover Shot
Venice Marina at Dusk
Just wanted to share this image I captured of Venice Marina the other evening. Had to fight my way through swarms of gnats and questions of my sanity, but I’m glad I stuck around.
