Eau Claire images



A regular Dean Potter.



The photos below were all taken in October, which is indeed a very fine time of year in Central Wisconsin. Taking photographs, along with fishing, writing, and hunting, has provided me a much needed respite from the urgency of school. One could say that I've hit the "fifth-year crunch," or have a case of "super-senioritis." Whatever term suits your fancy, I have it bad, and holding an old Pentax in my hands has been thoroughly therapeutic. Hope you enjoy the photos! I always enjoy sharing.







The New Glarus Brewery



"When in Brule"

One of my very favorite things about being a trout junkie is that every season presents opportunity. Whether it's in the form of hitting the summer mayfly hatches just right or brewing up an absurd amount of coffee and churning out new flies once winter settles in, there is never a time when I feel like I'm disconnected from the sport. Late fall is no exception to this seasonal fly fishing equation, and for my friends Ryan Alger, Nate Wick, and I, our trout sonars pointed north to the Bois Brule River and the opportunity for fresh fall steelhead. 

The online fishing reports prior to the trip revealed that the water was extremely low and clear and the steelhead that were there did not come without diligence. However, the sluggish report did little to quell our enthusiasm. With boxes of freshly tied nymph and egg flies, we left Eau Claire in the rear view and, after a few ceremonial nips of whiskey, made camp in the 27 degree Northern Wisconsin air. 

In the morning, I checked the USGS water data for the Brule on my iPhone, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the area had gotten rain in the past 24 hours, and the river had come up a bit. We hit the river early, and the conditions didn't disappoint. By 1:00 on Friday morning, all three of us had hooked up with fresh fish. Ryan nearly landed a 23" hen that snapped the tippet as I was trying to net it. If I were on top of things, I would have got a shot of the poor guy's face after his first ever steelie snapped off. The caption would have read, "fuuuuuuck." However, Ryan would go on to land a smaller jack, and Nate and I followed suit with fresh fish of our own, solidifying the trip's success within just a few hours. 

We spent the rest of that day and the next letting the Brule's water soak into our souls. Amid scattered snow showers, we smoked cheap cigars and sucked down hoppy craft brew. 

So that's what this time of year means to me...another opportunity to catch some kick-ass fish in a unique setting, and it never hurts to share it with some amigos. Enjoy the photos!

I reserved a roll of film for the trip, and all but the last photo (taken by Ryan) were from my Pentax. 

Good beer is photogenic.  

27 degrees and the coffee tastes alright!

24" silver stunner.

The things I would do to own that shack...

25" hen

Film- Roll #2

 I struggled with some exposure issues on this roll. While 400 ISO film is more forgiving when shooting in areas of low light than the 200 ISO film I used on the first roll, it is less so when shooting outside on sunny days. I found this out the hard way with many of the pictures being overly exposed (I think that's the correct term?). While the relativity of the ISO setting is probably an elementary rule of thumb for more experienced photographers, I've got a long ways to go in feeling completely comfortable with it all.

Nonetheless, I'm having a blast with the process. Having a camera in my hand makes me think about the world around me a little differently...more artistically maybe? I guess the same could be said for any form of expression where influences are gathered from one's surroundings.

Hope you like the below photos...they're from the Eau Claire area, during the season of flannel and hoppy beverages (though if you're like me, isn't that every season?).

Augusta Wildlife Area

Livin' on the edge. 

Mud Monster

$35 well spent (I suspect)

For a troutaholic, I'm admittedly late in discovering the work of Peter Christensen and Rolf Nylinder. Just the same, I'm glad I stumbled across their newest IndieGoGo project before it was too late to reserve my copy of their upcoming DVD, "The Trout Also Rises."

If you're young, wreckless, and in need of inspiration, give these Swedish dudes' stuff a watch. Their kickass creativity and overall goofiness had me laughing out loud to myself numerous times.

The Trout Also Rises -trailer for the film.

Aitutaki - bonefish ridiculousness.

frontsidefly.com -additional videos by Peter & Rolf.

Film- Roll #1

For most of this year, the only camera I've been using to record my wanderings is the one on my iPhone 4s. To its credit, it does a pretty good job for basic outdoor-related stuff. Eventually I plan on getting a nice dSLR with good HD video capabilities, but with a semester and a half of college courses left, that remains a future investment.
About a month ago, as I was instagramming a bright picture of a colorful brook trout and trying to find the most appropriate artificial filter to convey a "vintage look," I remembered my dad's old film camera.
He'd described his forays into photography multiple times during my childhood and I had always been a little intimated by the technical aspects of aperture, shutter speed, etc. to give it due attention. But recently, after owning multiple point and shoot cameras and wanting to learn more about photography itself, I became real excited about film photography.

So I asked my dad if I could borrow his old film camera, a 1978 Pentax k100, he was thrilled about my interest in it, and the following unaltered photos are the product of my first roll of film. All in all, I was pretty excited about the quality of some of the prints. And as you might expect, it does feel a little like time travel learning how to correctly load/unload film and adjusting the camera's purely mechanical settings to the appropriate values. Next time I make it home I'll ask my pops if he has any of those old prints from his younger days and post them on here as well.
All of the photos shown were taken in Western Wisconsin.

grouse hunting-opening day

9/15/12-photo credit Nate Wick

9/15/12-photo credit Nate Wick

mailbox

fly vise

My pal Bleu.

9/19/12

9/19/12

Bastard

My good friend Nate Thomas posted this pig of a cutthroat pic a couple days ago, the same day (see title) that I started classes for what will be my final year of college. The caption from his Facebook page goes as follows:

"Life is simple these days, I haul gravel and catch 22" cutthroat trout on my 15 minute break from hauling gravel."

Thank you, Nate, for making every hour spent in MUSIC 225 go by that much slower.

Under the Bridge

I have a thing for watching trout. Especially big trout, in little spring creeks.

 Click here to see some big Coulee Country trout doing their thing.

August Dawn

Does it get any better than this?