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January 16th, 2010
After the New Year I got in a couple of Texas coastal duck hunts with my son, Blake, and friend Brad Smythe. I shot my first ducks around Rockport nearly forty years ago (damn I’m old), and until I reached my teens, I wasn’t even sure that ducks would land on fresh water. I’ve hunted them in lots of places, since then, but I always enjoy returning to the spot where I once had to stand on the boat seat to shoot coots off the water with a side-by .410.
We had exactly the fowl/foul weather that we needed to get the ducks moving, so instead of stacking away more cloudy-day shots with standard color levels, I decided to play around with Photoshop. Using high contrast, sepia layers, and vignettes, I came up with a variety of tones and saturations. Some were taken all the way down to grayscale, and in others I let a few of the highlight colors pop through. As much as I often lament the loss of our film culture, I do sometimes enjoy a little nerdlike post-processing.
If you’re needing shots for an upcoming article or promo, I’ve got a pile of duck hunting images in my online stock photo archive. I’ve also setup a cool (new to me) form of delivery using iDisk. High-res downloads are available within minutes, as long as I’m not too far from my desk. My keyword system is based on species, location, and action words; here are few sample phrases to get you started:
Sample Duck Hunting Keywords
duck hunting covers
pintail flying
hunter shooting ducks
duck hunter calling
lab retrieving duck
Texas coast duck hunting
In a couple of weeks I’ll be heading to New Orleans to fish/photograph bruiser marsh redfish with Captain Bryan Carter. Stay tuned for some cool, new views.
 
Tags: duck hunting, ducks, hunting dogs, salt water, Texas
Posted in Waterfowl Hunting | 2 Comments »
December 20th, 2009
Last week I traveled to the Texas Panhandle for my annual goose and crane extravaganza with Blackfoot Guide Service. This is one of my favorite hunts, and the 2009 version was one of the best we’ve had in years. For a change, we had normal weather: lows in the 20’s and highs in the 50’s with sunny skies. That beats the zero year when we had to chip pack ice from our nostrils, and the flood year when we couldn’t even get the decoy trailer into the field. The light winds, this time, made the geese a little picky, but only to the point that we needed modified chokes instead of improved cylinders. Yes, these Panhandle geese usually decoy quite nicely.
In the afternoons we set up windsock spreads for sandhill cranes in a cut milo field south of Tahoka. If you’ve ever hunted cranes, you’ll know that concealment is the key. It doesn’t matter how good your spread looks when your hulking silhouette stands out like a shark in a bird bath. This year our guides packed us into layout blinds woven with grain stalks that proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle. When the first group of cranes swung in and cupped their wings only thirty feet off the deck, we knew we were in for a great shoot.
If you need shots for an upcoming article or promotion, please visit my online archive to see my entire selection of goose hunting and sandhill crane hunting images. High resolution files are available via ftp upload, usually within minutes.
Tools of the trade
Bluebird skies and cautious Canadas, near Lubbock, Texas
Lexie the goose fetching machine
Guide Johnny Miller talking trash
Sandhills on the wing
David Brown hunkering among the stalks
 
What to shoot when the birds aren’t flying?
Christmas dinner
A goose guide’s mid-season floorboard pile-up
I’ll be shooting some deer hunting photos after Christmas, followed by a couple of duck shoots in January. Thanks to everyone who bought, pimped, and published my work in 2009. Hopefully we’ve survived the worst of a horrendous recession. Happy Holidays to everyone, and I look forward to working/hanging with all of you again in 2010.
Tags: geese, goose hunting, hunting dogs, sandhill crane hunting, Texas, Waterfowl Hunting
Posted in Waterfowl Hunting | No Comments »
November 2nd, 2009
Last week I traveled to the Northeast to shoot the first leg of a new book project. Over the next year, I’ll be working with writer Pete McDonald to produce a large-format pictorial (that’s a pitcher book for you Oklahomans) on the ravenous and eclectic fly fishing culture of striped bass, bluefish, false albacore, and other hard-pulling, bait-crashing, surf-busting species. We knew the weather would be suspect this time of year, but we were still hoping for more sunny days than not. That didn’t happen.
It was raining when I flew into Laguardia and it was raining when I left. It also rained in between…a lot. We did have one nice sunny day, but the rest of the time it rained…a lot. We also had wind from every point on the compass, and we lost an entire fishing/shooting day when the seas climbed to eight feet and the beach sand blew at paint-peeling velocity. Despite the conditions, we made do and got all of our bad weather photographs out of the way. This trip forced me to scheme and finagle, and my underwater housing came in particularly handy on the last day when the driving rain would have otherwise made shooting impossible.
The second installment of this project has not been scheduled, but it looks like we’ll be heading back up there sometime this spring. Our plan is to follow the fish in a circuitous route from Maine to the Carolinas. This book will eventually arise under my Departure Publishing imprint. Hop on that mailing list if you’d like to keep abreast of our progress.
A big thanks to everyone that helped us out on the shoot: Paul Dixon, Jason Puris, and Jim Levison in Montauk. John McMurray in Jamaica Bay. Captain Mike Warecke in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and The Salty Fly Rodders of New York out at Breezy Point.
Here are a few selections to get you started. If you’d like to see the entire shoot, please click here.
Victory among the rocks at Breezy Point
Underwater striper near the Connecticut River
 
Good place for chowder after a day of taking waves in the face
Birds over bait near Montauk Point
Bluefish gnashers (and goo)
Postcard weather at Jamaica Bay
Tupperware?
Stripping for stripers
A schoolie in the surf
Obligatory fall color shot
Tags: Bluefish, Breezy Point, Connecticut, fly fishing, Jamaica Bay, Montauk, New York, salt water, Striped Bass, Stripers
Posted in Saltwater Fly Fishing | 3 Comments »
October 2nd, 2009
Opening Day
I had big plans in September to spend quite a bit of time in the field with doves, dogs and camera gear. In Texas, dove season typically brings a change in the weather, and this year we were needing one in a big way. After months of parched pastures, dusty roads, dry tanks, and searing heat, the rains arrived right on schedule.
I managed to get in a couple of shoots between opening day and the first deluge on September 6th, but every planned hunt after that date was a washout. Literally.
Below you’ll find a smattering of images that I shot before the rains fell and the early season birds scattered. Hopefully there will be a couple more dove days before other distractions take over.
Return to Versus Country
Back in July, I traveled to Georgia to do a shoot for Versus Country television. They’ve just sent me the ad layouts with the images from that shoot, and I’m amazed at what their graphic design folks have done with my shots. These ads will be running nationally for the next few months to promote VC’s fall and winter TV lineup.
Mike Hanback – The Buck Stops Here
Bill Dance Outdoors
Jeff Foxworthy & David Morris – The Bucks of Tecomate
Larry Weishuhn – Winchester Whitetail Revolution
Coming Up
In late October I’ll be traveling to Montauk, NY to work on the first installment of a large-format pictorial on fly-fishing the Altantic Seaboard. Author Pete McDonald will be penning the commentary and I’ll be doing the photography work. Our plan is to cover the Atlantic coast from Maine to The Outer Banks over an eighteen-month period and chronicle the huge, ravenous and ecclectic fly-fishing culture of striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and whatever else we snag.
If all goes according to plan, this book will release in the Spring of 2011 through my Departure Publishing imprint. Check back next month for a preview of those images.
Tags: dove hunting, Texas, upland birds
Posted in Big Game Hunting, Upland Bird Hunting | No Comments »
September 4th, 2009
In August I tagged along during the Texas Legends Billfish Tournament on a boat called Catchin’ Up out of Port Aransas. Being that this was a money tournament, and because the money fish in Texas live a long dang way from the dock, we packed along our toothbrushes and called it a 260-mile roundtrip sleepover.
We were blessed with glorious weather during the days. But at night—when we needed to sleep? Not so much. From dusk to dawn, both nights, we had 4-5 footers running one direction and a 15-knot current running the other. Even with our chute deployed, we could never get the boat to turn completely downsea. Beyond that minor inconvenience (hurl) we ate well, the boat was fabulous, the BS level was quality, and we caught a few fish, to boot.
About 4am on our our first night, Bob Johnson was keeping watch when a juvenile broadbill snacked on one of the light stick rigs. A 50-pounder had won the swordfish pot the year before so we were hopeful that this one might also qualify. At noon the next day we put a wahoo in the box, and later we had a brief fight with a money fish. It wasn’t a huge blue, but a marlin release would have racked up some needed points. We had her on for about six jumps (during which I fired one frame) and then she was off.
When we got back to the dock we learned that we were no more wealthy than when we left. A 145-pound broadbill won that pot, and one of the boats had released 4 billfish. Thanks to Hank, Bob, Bucky, Hobbs, and Mickey for letting me hang out and shoot some pics.
Click here to see the full photo spread.
Captain Bucky Bonner watching the spread
Sunset 130 miles from the dock
Bob Johnson setting rods at daybreak
My one image of a greyhounding pile of cash
Port Aransas locals watching the weigh-in
Tags: billfish, blue marlin, broadbill, deepsea, Gulf of Mexico, offshore, Port Aransas, salt water, swordfish, tournament, trolling
Posted in Saltwater Fishing | 1 Comment »
August 6th, 2009
Jeff Foxworthy and David Morris discussing something about two feet wide
In mid-July I traveled to Pine Mountain, Georgia to do a shoot for Versus Country television. They had assembled their entire hook and bullet talent lineup for a two-day media production event, and my job was to get the still images that they’d need for their upcoming fall/winter advertising program.
I’ve done a couple of shoots in the past that combined film and stills, but this one was a completely different animal. With sound, lights, art direction, shooters, stylists, wardrobe, and caterers, the total production involved a small army of people, and mine was the least expensive gear pile on the lot. Over two days they arranged about a dozen different sets on the grounds of Callaway Gardens preserve and resort. There were log cabins, campfires, bass boats, ATV’s, old pickups, rods and guns, rattling horns–toys galore.
The challenge, for me, was to get the shots they needed between film takes. Sometimes I only had a few minutes to set up and shoot before the talent got herded off to another location. There was no time for me do any elaborate lighting, but in a few cases I got to use what the film crew had already set up. Even though there was a lot of downtime, I still fired about 2,000 frames and turned out some cool images. It was a fun shoot with a great group of folks.
The art directors at Versus are still going through the keepers, but here a couple of shots from the outtakes file. I’ll post up a few of the finished ad concepts as soon they’re done.
Larry Weishuhn in a tricked-out South Georgia deer camp
Bill Dance, Larry Cszonka and Larry Dahlberg relaxing between shoots
Coming Up
Later this month I’ll be doing a couple of blue water fishing shoots off the Texas coast, and possibly a few more redfish days. In early September I’ll be packing my shotgun for dove season.
If you need stock images, my entire archive is available (really big) by FTP delivery and I can usually get them to you within minutes as long as I’m not too far from my desk. Stock usage rates are priced on request.
Drop in and have a look…
Tags: deer hunting, Georgia, whitetail
Posted in Big Game Hunting | No Comments »
July 5th, 2009
Key West
This was our seventeenth year (parents, siblings, kids, et al) with the same dates, same guides, and undoubtedly some of the same tarpon. In some years we’ve hit it perfectly (late May/early June) and in other years the planets were mis-aligned. We had some goofy west winds and poor visibility that hindered a few days, this year, but the tarpon performed on cue when the conditions were right. Click here to see a few shots from this year’s Key West Trip.
These are Redfish
At the end of June, the wife/kids and I arrived in Port Aransas for our annual redfish sabbatical. For six straight days we had glass calm flats that were covered with tailing fish. And then, by divine coincidence, the blasting winds arrived right alongside the annual migration of July 4th revelers. As I sit typing this report, the ferries are carrying those crowds away and the winds are forecast to lay again by Tuesday. Click here for a sampling of what I’ve shot, so far.
Need Upland Bird Images?
This month I’m featuring images from my upland bird hunting archive. If you need shots of pointing dogs, prairie hunters or flushing birds, I’ve got a large selection of images From Montana to the Texas Brush Country.
Coming Up
Later this month I’ll be putting the rods away for a quick assignment shoot for one of the outdoor television networks. By some miracle they’ve managed to gather their entire fall talent lineup into a single location for a two-day media event. I’m glad I wasn’t the one in charge of scheduling that one. The shots will be a mix of candids and stages that will be used for their 2009-10 ad campaigns. Check back next month to see the images from that shoot.
All of these shots are available (really big) by FTP delivery and I can usually get them to you within minutes as long as I’m not too far from my desk. Stock usage rates are priced on request.
Drop in and have a look…
Tags: Florida, Florida Keys, fly fishing, kayak, Key West, Port Aransas, quail hunting, redfish, salt water, tarpon, Texas, upland birds
Posted in Saltwater Fly Fishing, Upland Bird Hunting | No Comments »
June 2nd, 2009
One can never be too careful during a global health crisis…
Last month I ignored the media’s warnings of Imminent Death by Pig and traveled to the Yucatan with friend/publisher Tom Bie. We were on a mission for Playa Blanca lodge to explore their backcountry waters via kayak and canoe. For six days we paddled, portaged and picked our way through an immense and elaborate maze of mangrove flats, creeks, lagoons and swamps. Instead of including a bunch of mundane rhetoric, I’ll let the following photo sample tell the tale. Look for some of these shots and an accompanying story in a future issue of The Drake. To see the full photo spread, click here.
Tags: bonefish, fly fishing, Mexico, Playa Blanca Lodge, salt water, snook, tarpon, Yucatan
Posted in Saltwater Fly Fishing | No Comments »
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