Photo Dump

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. Here are a few images I've made over the last few months:

This Bear is Coming Out of Hibernation

Spring is well on its way here in Logan, and Logan Canyon is following closely behind. The Logan River is flowing about a foot higher than it normally is, and the water is getting pretty murky from all the sediment and debris being stirred up by the faster and more turbulent water. I got out yesterday after work and spent about an hour fishing. I didn't catch (or see) any fish, but it was still good to get out and get my line wet. After all, I don't need to catch a fish to have fun fishing.

After I was done, I walked through a grove of trees and thought I should make a few photographs. Here are a few that I came away with:

A Very Successful Weekend

Lately I've been suffering from cabin fever. With decent camping and fishing weather fading, I've been trying to get out as much as possible. Friday, I headed up Logan Canyon after work and pitched my tent along Right Hand Fork, a tributary to Logan River. I spent the evening photographing, and came away with these:

Saturday morning, I got up early, broke camp and was on the river with my fly rod at 7:30. I only saw two fish the whole morning, one of which shook itself off of my fly. After I'd had enough of not seeing any fish, fighting snags in trees, and wind knots, I put the rod away, and got my camera out and came back to this little riffle:

Afterwards, I drove further up the canyon to Red Banks, cooked lunch, and then started fishing again. Two casts after getting in the water, I had a 14-ish inch Cutthroat trout on; my first Cutthroat ever. A few casts after that I hooked into another 14-ish inch Cutthroat. A little further upstream, I saw a nice pocket that looked to maybe be holding a fish, and sure enough, the second I placed my Red Humpy on the water, a fish struck, I set the hook and the fight was on. After a short fight, I finally had the beautiful Cutthroat in my net. It was the biggest fish I'd ever caught, and measured about 16 inches. After not seeing any success at all in the morning, I was feeling pretty good about the afternoon. I continued upstream, catching a few small 6-8 inch fish, and a few others 10-14 inches. After a tippet change, I put the Humpy back on, and started heading to a hole I knew holds plenty of fish. Just a few yards downstream, I cast my fly to a small pocket, which sucked the fly under the surface a few inches. I saw the flash of a green back, and a white mouth, and set the hook. It didn't take long to know I had another big fish on. He swam upstream to hole after hole, and when he jumped out of the water, I had a good idea of just how big the fish was. He finally swam to the hole I was headed to, where I finally landed him. He didn't even fit in my net. Without a real tape measure, I couldn't get an exact measurement, but he was about 2 inches longer than the longest measurement of my net, which is (according to the specifications) 17.25", so I figure he was in the 20 inch range. I really wish someone was there to photograph this gorgeous fish, or somehow find a way for me to photograph them myself without stressing them more than necessary. After I'd landed that one, I figured it was a good way to end the day, so I packed up and headed home. All in all, it was, as the title of this post suggests, a very successful weekend.

Logan Canyon

This weekend I went up fishing on the Logan River. The stretch of river I wanted to fish was already taken, so I went downstream a few miles and fished a stretch I hadn't fished before. Sometimes when I'm out fishing, I see parts of the river that I need to photograph, and this trip was one of those times. I went back there tonight and came away with these:

I don't know how this car got to the bottom of the canyon (this stretch is about 100 feet below the highway), but it made for a good place to hold fish. I saw a few rise this weekend, though none were interested in anything I cast to them.

Fall is in full swing up the canyon, and the leaves are turning yellow, red, orange and all shades in between. It's really quite gorgeous up there. Here's just a sample:

This hole was pretty deep. I had my tripod fully extended, which go up to about 6' 6" not including the head. I worried the current would shake the camera, but the photograph is as sharp as any other, even though I didn't quite like how it turned out.

Photographing in Logan Canyon...and Blacksmith Fork Canyon yet again

Today I headed up Blacksmith Fork Canyon again to do some fishing, but I broke my leader as I was stretching the coils out of it, and I didn't have any spares, so I decided to head up Logan Canyon and up to Tony Grove to see if Tony Grove Lake was accessible yet or not. It turns out it isn't. There is still a lot of snow on the road about a mile below the lake. I turned the car around and headed back down the mountain. On the way back to the main highway, I saw a small stream from the runoff, and had to see if there were any photographs to be made, and I came away with these:

I'm not sure this is the best way to photograph this tree, but I thought this lone pine tree was rather interesting:

After almost two years I'm finally feeling comfortable with photographing the landscape here around Logan, specifically in Logan Canyon, which has felt somewhat visually claustrophobic to me. It's hard to single subjects out and isolate them the way I like to, but over the last few months I've found it easier to see good photographs.

After I got done photographing along the road to Tony Grove, I headed back down Logan Canyon, and took a detour up Right Hand Fork.
Lately I've really been drawn to photographing scenes with a stationary object that is a relatively minor element in the photograph, with the majority of the objects in the photograph in motion. Like in this photograph:

After I was done in Right Hand Fork, I came back to town, got a few new leaders for my fly line, and replaced the broken one. This evening I returned to Blacksmith Fork Canyon to photograph the dam some more: