Rocky Ford Creek Report: The Last Fish of Winter

Winter has retreated to the high country. There it will make its last stand.

Down along the creek it's already spring even if the calendar says it's winter for one more day.

You've brought your new ties, and over the afternoon each pattern--PMD, Lady McConnell, and Adams variant--brings trout to the net.

You bring one in on a black humpy and discover a nice little mayfly tie broken off in the corner of its jaw.

The afternoon goes from breezy to breezier, in the great tradition of March. The pelicans sail over now and then tilting like kites.

The best fly of the afternoon is the little yellow and quail soft hackle. You trail it in the meniscus behind a high-floating stimulator for awhile.

The sun angles lower. On the last trip, this was the time for a lively evening rise. This time the fish stay down.

You change tactics and present the soft hackle with a brisk strip. It works.

It's on the strip that you catch the last fish of the day and the last fish of winter.

You get home and the moon has a halo around it. Looks like a change in the weather.

Winterscapes Norway/In the Land of the Northern Lights

Say goodbye to winter....

Winterscapes Norway from Konabyua on Vimeo.
Intended to capture the beauty of the Lofoten Islands I stayed at Svolvaer for 20 days. I was lucky to see often moderate Noordernlights the first two weeks and fantastic ones the last week!
Everything is captured between februari and march 2012. The period of 3 weeks was dicided by pure gambling on clear nightskies and much aurora. The result was 8 nights showing me beatifull aurora's. One night the lights were everywhere for hours.




In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole C. Salomonsen on Vimeo.

Ok folks, this is it. Here is my first video project.

It is a video of the Northern Lights created using stills (stop motion). All sequences are shot in or close to Tromsø in Northern Norway.

I have spent over 6months collecting footage for this, I have shot approx 50.000 stills to choose from in making this video. A goal for me has been to try to preserve the real-time speed of the northern lights, or come as close as possible, and present it the way I experienced it, instead of the northern lights just flashing over the sky in the blink of an eye. It may work on other time-lapse videos with fast moving clouds and sunsets etc, but with the northern lights in focus, it should be presented in it's true speed to reflect her beauty, imo. In the video I have put together a collection of slow moving auroras in the woods, over the mounatins, in the city, in the foreshore, reflected in the sea, with some of the most spectacular and strongest auroral outbreaks seen in many years. Included here is a coronal outbreak, in which I am particularly happy to present, since it is very difficult to get on stills, even worse on "film".

I got a fantastic soundtrack made for the video by local musical talent in Tromsø; Per Wollen. A Huge thanks goes to you Per obviously!

Fly Tying: Rocky Ford Dry Pack

In search of the "right fly": Lady McConnell's, PMD's, and a couple of Adams variations.

Rocky Ford Creek Report: Satisfied

Off over the flats under a decidedly spring sky.

Past the greening hillside to the water.

Another breezy, beautiful day at Rocky Ford.

The Lady, twitched seductively through the riffles, brings in the first fish.

Another fish is hooked and quickly lost. You check the fly: slightly bent. You straighten it. A third fish comes to the Lady and is hooked. It's a heavy fish, and fights hard. You have him three feet from the net when he comes off. You check the fly again: no wonder. Not worth straightening again.

You consign it to the deep.

Humpy time. The fish chase it. One chunky fish takes it.

The clouds cast shadows, the wind paints patterns on the water.

You go to a yellow and quail soft hackle and get a taker on a slow retrieve.

So you hang the soft hackle under an indicator and let it drift.

The indicator slips out of sight and you come up on a very good fish. You play it carefully and get it in the net--barely. This is the biggest fish of the year, maybe the biggest you've taken at Rocky Ford. You get one photo and the fish twists out of the net. You tail it and try to net it again--no go. He's gone.

The sun angles lower and gilds the ridge. The wind backs off. Mayflies flitter in the air and glint on the surface. The fish come alive.

You have the skinny tippet but you don't have the right fly.

You have a small yellow humpy, and that's close enough for one fish.

Dusk comes and the fish slow down. You tie on your new stimulator and get a few bumps, but no one's eating it. Everyone seems to be satisfied.

And so are you.

Patagonica

Patagonica from Dapp on Vimeo.

Taking a dreamy and unique approach to adventure cinematography, Dapp and a hand picked crew ventured into the wilds of Chile and Argentina carrying the latest in 4K cinematography in order to bring you Patagonica. Covering over 6000km of Patagonia’s back roads and mountain passes, the team carried out an unprecedented production pace by carrying everything by hand, and producing world class cinematography during the transformational rigors of existing in the mountains.

In order to craft a true cinematic narrative in his signature way, Dapp began editing Patagonica 7 days into a 28 day venture. On the dusty back routes of Chile’s Carratera Austral, the spirit of the adventure was sewed into this piece, music was chosen. The ‘preface’ beginning of the film itself is actually boarded out to a famous lecture about dreams and adventure moulding to the spirit of insight even after the narration form was removed.

Fish Kitsch: Bad Post Cards

For more of the same, check out Bad Postcards.

A Big, Beautiful Rainbow

Sebastian, our three-year-old grandson, just started attending Day Care. Yesterday he brought home his first coloring project.