Friday, October 14, 2011

PHOTOGRAPHING THE WILD LIFE


I’ve mentioned before that we enjoy fresh wild trout frequently at our table. 
The fishermen come back and tell me stories of all the fun they’ve had and
show me blurry photos and videos they took while they were trying to land said fish.
I enjoy fishing but not enough to spend days at it and not enough to 
purchase an out of state license.  Still they needed a photographer 
that wasn’t trying to hold a net or a fishing pole. 
Besides, spending a day on a lake in Montana in the fall was an offer I couldn't refuse.
So four of us—Son Beavis, DH, myself and

S.T.--Beavis’ friend and a fishing rookie, left for the lake.

It wasn’t long before we met with success.

These trout are BIG.

Both DH and Beavis were bringing them in

S.T. was getting the hang of slinging a worm on the end of a fishing line 
into the lake without wrapping it around a sage brush.

Success for the newbie!

Success for everybody.

Worms on a bobber and power bait.  Somehow the fish found it irresistible.

Did I mention the scenery was stunning?

Oh, yeah, back to catching fish.

The legal limit was five fish each and they were doing their best to reach it.

Catching rainbows.  Beauty, no?

The master shows off a “little” one.

Then the fish went off to do other fishy things.
Ho-hum--

It looked like the end of fishing for this day.  So we went home.

There were plenty of pictures and video of the day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
This post is for the fishermen.  
Next time there will be photos of other stuff we saw.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT--NO PRESENT LIKE THE TIME

Trolling the net for sillies so you don't have to.







You're Welcome.

Monday, October 10, 2011

WORKING UPSTREAM

Another watercolor finished with a fisherman in mind.
Using several photos for reference I drew up a value sketch 
at the size I wanted for the painting--10 inch by 14 inch.

I transferred the drawing to Arches watercolor paper, stretched it by wetting
and stapling it to gator board.  I protected the man and some highlights with
liquid masking and laid in a few green washes.

I added darks and details working mostly from back to front.

When most of the splashy part was done I removed the masking and went 
to work on details.
Final painting I'm calling "Working Upstream."  
Knowing fish almost always face into the current,a fisherman approaches a 
big rainbow trout's suspected location from directly downstream.

This painting and several others are available for purchase on my Etsy site--
Watercolors by Leenie.  Just click on the red icon upper left of this 
blog to see more...all at ridiculously low prices.