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I've recently started taking a lot more pictures of my flies as I start to tie some that I'm actually proud of, but I'm still having problems getting the entire fly in focus. As you can see from the picture, I get some decent focus on the close foreground (the herl and body), but it starts to get worse the further away you get from the focus point. By the time you get to the tips of the hackle and the end of the parachute post, it is almost completely out of focus. I've tried a number of lighting options, including all natural window light, natural light with an overhead light, no natural light with lights from the top and sides, and no natural light with light just from the top. Obviously it isn't the best lighting situation, but I think it's good enough to get the fly completely lit up. As for backgrounds, I usually stick to heavy paper folders. The two colors I use the most are a dark blue, which turns much lighter in the pictures, and black, which becomes gray. I doubt the background makes much of a difference as far as focus goes, but I figured I'd include it. I'm shooting on a Canon EOS 80D with a macro lense, which I can't find a ton of helpful information online about. I've tried a bunch of settings, but the one I keep reverting to is the automatic mode because it's the most dummy proof, and seems to consistently provide the best pictures of the ones I take. The picture shown here was taken in the close up mode. I've also tried aperture priority (Av), where I've used a number of F-stops but usually get a very slow shutter speed, shutter priority (Tv), where the picture turns very dark when I turn the shutter speed down, and also messed with the Iso speed, which almost always results in a very slow shutter speed and blurry pictures. Anyone have any tips to get the entire fly in focus? Camera setting tips? Lighting tips? Any help would be appreciated, as I am truly very new to the photography game.

Here's a picture taken with my Olympus TG 3 and using "focus stacking ". The lighting could be better ,but it's fairly sharp.

Today I went down to a cousins ponds here in Alabama, I didn't bring the long rod because I wasn't sure how grown up it was around the ponds, I caught one bass on a top water plug, and lost a HAWG on a black and blue tube, drag screamed all the way across the pond then she jumped and spit it out! :'( I walked up to the upper pond and saw it was open enough to fly fish, and had a nice dock. While tossing a baby bass colored crankbait, I saw a rather large carp! I was STOKED! I've been wishing they were in the area I live in in Georgia, and now I was watching one chase down my crankbait, which is wired, it would chase it until the last instant then turn and swim off, I then just put the rod down to watch him Hoover stuff up and he swam right into another one! I got pictures of them, I edited the photos to make it easier to see them, by turning the brightness down and the contrast up the fish really pops, I've tied up some flies and I hope to get out after them soon!

Today, August 19th is World Photography Day. In 1839 Daguerre and his partner invented and released the Daguerrotype (sp?) photographic process to the world. Go to this link for more info, and a great photo gallery: www.worldphotoday.org. Bill

I have been inactive on here wayyyyyy to long. I thought I would post my favorite photo of the trip and a little bit about the day for you guys to read. This same article appears on my facebook page, with additional photos. You can find my facebook page by googling The Bear and The Echo photography. Go to the photo sesison Blood and Fishing - Chad vs the Big Lost. Thanks! ***** There is nothing I love more in the world, save my family, than the Big Lost River. So when I had a chance to combine the two, it was like a euphoric dream. Chad and I had been trying to schedule a BLR trip for over a year, and last week it finally came together. I literally did not sleep the night before, which is something that only happens to me when the kiddos are sick and when a mouse runs across my face in my bed (that’s another story). We fished a stretch of the Big Lost that neither of us had ever fished before…… one that we had both always wondered about, but never had the time, nor patience, to realize. It took Chad but moments to gear up and hit the water after I parked the Tundra. Me on the other hand…….. It always feels like I am in slow motion during the prelude to glory. After an hour on the water I decided that I wanted to take the opportunity to photograph Chad while he fished. Chad is a master fly fisherman. His casts are both beautiful and deadly. He can read both the water and the mind of his prey incredibly accurately. Chad tripled my catch in 2 hours. It is not often that I give up actual “hard” fishing time on the Big Lost, but these images will forever remind me that things in this world do not matter. Only love matters. Family and friends are keepsakes that we should hoard away in our hearts and memories while we are able. These are for you Chad. Thanks for the day. It is something that I will treasure all the rest of my time on this Earth.