Test photos of fly patterns

So I wanted to improve my fly photography by improving the mini-studio I built for taking pictures of flies.  I did a little research online and then picked up two new lights from National Camera Exchange to replace the old convoluted system I was using. 

 

I am now just using those two lights and a reflector inside a light box.  Before, I was using the light box, a reflector, three lights, an on camera flash hooked up to secondary slave flash via a cable, and the full kitchen table with two leaves in it.  Now I'm down to using a third of the kitchen table without the leaves in it.

 

Here are some photos of tonight's practice session (click on each to enlarge).

 

 

sparkle soft hackle

tungston zebra nymph variant

zebra stable (7 different variants): fresh off the vise last weekend

wet fly on bamboo background

wet fly on oak background

streamer with maple background

streamer with dark stained wood background

double midge fly

double midge fly 2

 

 

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A UV parachute midge

Last year on the Big Horn River, there was a hatch we hadn't come across before that the trout were keyed in on.  After looking at a few, I had to come up with something that night that would come close.  Below is what we came up with at trout camp.

Hook: TMC 100 size 18 - 20
Thread: black
Body/tail: black Ultra micro-chenille
Parachute: 4 strands of Wapsi Tan UV Krystal Flash and black black polypropylene floating yarn, with three or four wraps of a light dun dry fly feather.
FYI: The over all length of this fly from tail to eye is about a half an inch.

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Ray Charles

In preparation for my trip to the Big Horn River that is coming soon, I tied up three different colors (orange, natural, and tan) of Ray Charles in two different sizes (#14 and #16) on a TMC 3761 hook today.

The first two pictures were taken with my 18-55mm Nikkor lens.  The second two pictures were taken with a lens that is on loan to me, which is an older fully manual Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens.  I love how detailed the ribbing is, especially since the x-small ribbing is so very thin to the naked eye.  Enjoy!

Hook: 3761
Tail: tan hen fibers
Body: Ostrich herl
Ribbing: red (x-small) wire for some, and for the others copper (small) wire
Shell back: mylar tinsel, Pearl
Thread: dark red

 

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"Craft" project

So for lack of a better title, I have been working on a "craft" project the past couple of nights.  With inspiration from a previous post showing a picture I had taken of a fly I tied, it hit me that I could do better.  And since I had all the camera equipment to make that possible, I set out to see what others do.

I surfed and surfed and saw some themes of how people set up to take good pictures of flies and I built my own "portable studio."  The total cost of this project for me was $0.00.  I just happen to have all the crap crafty stuff I needed around the house to make this thing.

I grabbed a mid sized cardboard box and mutilated it with a razor.  The idea was that the object inside the box would be lit up by lights outside the box, hence the holes on the opposite sides and the top.

Then, I added the "deluxe" option to this project which was adding a piece of Velcro to the back of the box and to the back of various colored file folders.

To the bottom of the box I taped in some white ink jet glossy photo paper to reflect light back up to the bottom side of the fly.

I re-enforced the box with packaging tape and then covered the openings with two layers of that gifty tissue paper stuff.  Here now, is the set up.  The camera is a good distance away because the lense I am using is the Nikkor 70-300 with the Macro option.  So, unlike a normal macro lense, I needed a little distance before the vise and fly where in focus.

The other thing you will notice is the vice is in front of the box instead of inside it.  After a couple of hours of messing around with different positions of the flash and trying to get it to work with the slave flash, I had to change tactics.  I wasn't getting good lighting, or when I did a huge shadow would be cast upon the background making for a serious distraction.

Once I brought it out in front of the box, the shadow issue disappeared and I could adequately light the fly enough for a descent picture that could go along with a pattern description.  It's obvious that I'm no Jim Schollmeyer, but I have to start somewhere.

So here are some of the pictures that I did while playing around with this project.