Photography is a regular topic in my fly fishing circles. It seems like the majority of the fly fisherman that I know personally (and the rest of the world for that matter) enjoy a rather stereotypical view of fly fishing photography – that cheesy, easy peasy half in and half out shot of an angler holding a fish under water just kills me; seriously, where’s the skill in shooting a hand-held fish under water? My opinion doesn’t matter though as I’m clearly one of a minority of pessimistic, critical perfectionists with self-set standards that obliterate the painful norm from our minds.
However, Peter Coetzee recently mentioned something that I completely agreed with; that most photographs of carp were in fact boring and that we (again the few of a minority of fly fisherman that praise carp) should try photographing these fish from a different angle on the next outing. Someone that seems to ‘get it’ and thatย inspired a new perspectiveย is David Tejedor Royo, i.e., Davidpikefly on Instagram.
Keeping this in mind, I deliberately avoided any mug shots and forced myself to do the opposite from what I’m used to doing – that silly fat carp selfie of my best fish pushed into a wide-angle lens for sentimental memories.
To be honest, it wasn’t easy to not take selfies with my favourite fish, but the result was personally very rewarding and the exercise simply grew my love affair with carp. Here are some photographs of my first practice round and perhaps not perfect yet, but still a fresh angle I believe: