Fish not posing nicely

[greenie62]

So I've caught a fish - got my unhooking mat ready with a A3-size laminated sheet printed with 1cm squares and a scale on it - arrange the fish in the net on the sheet on the mat - to get a quick snap and get it back in the water asap to minimise time out of water, handling, etc. Click - just as the fish flips out of the pre-arranged position and lies at completely the wrong angle!

How do you get a fish to lie still for a posed shot whilst minimising handling stress, etc?
Any tips for keeping them 'calm', still, sparkling, etc?

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Any tips for keeping them 'calm', still, sparkling, etc?

I have always found that if you lay the fish down and then blow over it then it will sort of "freeze" for long enough to take your pictures.

Give it a try, you have nothing to lose, alternatively . . . . .

http://www.farlows.co.uk/staghorn-priest.html?gclid=CK2i0tX8jcICFQEFwwod9yIAsQ

[with tongue firmly in cheek . . . . . ]

 

[Paul Boote]

I have always found that if you lay the fish down and then blow over it then it will sort of "freeze" for long enough to take your pictures.

Give it a try, you have nothing to lose, alternatively . . . . .

Staghorn Priest

[with tongue firmly in cheek . . . . . ]

Funny, I found a box of Priests from the long-gone days when I clonked game fish only a few weeks ago. Three shop-bought ones, two by Sharpes with black handles and turned aluminium heads; a nicely coloured and shaped wooden one made by a Welsh wood-turner friend thirty-odd years ago; best of all, the one that administered the last rites to many hundreds (thousands) of trout, sea-trout and salmon - a 7-inch length of lead pipe. I have a box of my old salmon gaffs somewhere, too.

As for photographing live fish - better a bad photo, I always felt, than keeping them out too long or repeatedly returning them to the water for a rest before you have another try at getting a perfect trophy shot. I killed an 18-pound Argentine sea-trout whilst trying to get a great "me and a slab" trophy shot one night in the 1990s; I found its body in a shallow run a few hundred yards downriver the following morning. Still have the lovely slides that my companion took that night, but, as I know the story that accompanies their taking, they mean rather less than nothing now. Never bothered with fish pics since.

 

[greenie62]

....
As for photographing live fish - better a bad photo, I always felt, than keeping them out too long or repeatedly returning them to the water for a rest before you have another try at getting a perfect trophy shot....

Thanks Paul,
That confirms what I feel when the fish 'does a flip' and spoils the shot - it's had enough of this posing lark and wants to go home! So back he goes straight away!

 

[barbelboi]

How do you get a fish to lie still for a posed shot whilst minimising handling stress, etc?
Any tips for keeping them 'calm', still, sparkling, etc?

Don't fish for grayling.....................

 

[greenie62]

Don't fish for grayling.....................

That's next month's problem!

 

[Paul Boote]

Grayling, a better class of Thrasher, Writher and Wriggler altogether. I had to take a lot of viewer-pleasing "Oo-er" pics of the things to include in slideshow talks to fly fishing and tying outfits when I used to give them.

Holding the fish upside down in your hand for a few seconds tends to calm them down, as it does most fish.

PS - Horizontally upside down in your hand, NOT holding them up vertically by their tail.

 

[Titus]

PS NOT holding them up vertically by their tail.

Is that because, like gerbils, their eyes will fall out?

 

[greenie62]

Is that because, like gerbils, their eyes will fall out?

No Ade,
I think it's 'cos the tail will come off in yer hand like a lizard's!

 

[Paul Boote]

No Ade,
I think it's 'cos the tail will come off in yer hand like a lizard's!

A problem that David Icke and other populist re-inventers and foolers have, yet still make huge amounts of "hard-earned" wonga. Turkeys, voting, Christmas....

 

[greenie62]

A problem that David Icke and other populist re-inventers and foolers have, yet still make huge amounts of "hard-earned" wonga. Turkeys, voting, Christmas....

What? - David Icke's got a tail like a lizard? I think the public should be told!....

 

[Paul Boote]

He's merely Yesterday's Meeja Larfable Lizard; it's Today's Altogether More-Savvy and Serious Ones that need to be watched much more closely.

"Don't understand a word 'e says! Wot's 'e on?"

Takes one to know one and blow them effortlessly away.

 

[greenie62]

.......
"Don't understand a word 'e says! Wot's 'e on?"
Takes one to know one and blow them effortlessly away.

Well - tonight I'm on Co-op's Freeminer Bumble-Bee Honey Ale (3 for £5) and very excellent it is too! - Given enough of this I might start to understand what you are on about - but by then I don't think I'll care nor be able to understand or speak English! Nos da a da boch chwi! mg:

 

[Paul Boote]

Carry On Drinking.

Just never let people similar to me but distinctly unlike me pour any of your pints, Greenie.

Bitter certainly, but with a horrible payback bite.

 

[bennygesserit]

A problem that David Icke and other populist re-inventers and foolers have, yet still make huge amounts of "hard-earned" wonga. Turkeys, voting, Christmas....

For all our disagreements Paul certainly can write and he encapsulates a lot into this , I just wonder if turkeys ever realise they are turkeys

 

[mick b]

Firstly think of the fish.
Next avoid selfies at all costs.

Fish in net, unhook without touching if poss. lay on suitable surface, wet piece of towel over the head and flip it off just before the snap, quickly back into the water.

Remember the catch, you caught it and YOU know you did, a photograph will mean nothing if the fish dies because of your vanity.


Note.
A pristine Barbel of 14lbs (weighed) floated down the river the other day, surely any number of photographs are not worth that

.

 

[Alan Tyler]

What Paul said about holding grayling on their backs to calm them reminds me of something I've often wondered, but never checked out or suggested - remiss of me - wouldn't it be better for all big fish if they were cradled upside-down in the angler's (wetted) arms - if you simply can't bear not to have a man-holds-fish trophy shot?
That way up, their delicate vital organs are resting on the impressive bulk of their body musculature, rather than the other way around...

 

[greenie62]

Firstly think of the fish....
Remember the catch, you caught it and YOU know you did, a photograph will mean nothing if the fish dies because of your vanity...

Thanks Mick,
That's precisely why I didn't go for a 're-arranged re-shoot' - I like to keep handling and time out of water to a minimum, particularly when they've scrapped so hard on the way in!

I'm trying to get some guidelines together for shooting fish eek: - not like that!) with minimum handling, etc. NOT 'trophy shots'! So far the ones I've got are:

• prepare your position as much as possible beforehand,
• wet unhooking mat,
• keep 'scaling' objects (mini-forceps, reel or float, etc.) to hand,
• remove hook(s),
• wet towel to cover fish,
• hold fish upside-down whilst handling,
• blow on fish's flank to still it,
• If it's for formal identification (e.g. Cru's):
  - ensure you've framed whole lateral line,
  - Spread fins out for counting rays and showing shape/position,
  - close-up on mouth to show prescence/absence of barbules
• leave it in net.

Anyone think of any more?

 

[Titus]

How do you prevent glare when using flash?

 

[nicepix]

How do you prevent glare when using flash?

Angle the flash and bounce it off the ceiling or a reflector. If you haven't got a flash gun that allows this then put something semi-opaque over the flash. A white hanky, tissue paper or white electrician's tape for example. You might have to adjust the colour cast of the photo as many 'white' objects have a slight colour that will transfer to the scene.

Edit: Just had a thought. Those plastic dividers that you get with lure boxes would make an ideal diffuser. Use a bit of tape or Blu-Tac to secure it over the flash.



---------- Post added at 18:28 ---------- Previous post was at 17:59 ----------

Personally I can get a reasonable photo of a fish usually still in the landing net, on an unhooking mat or grass, with a rod or other item to act as a reference a lot quicker than weighing it.

These days I don't bother weighing the vast majority of my captures. A quick photo and back in the water.