I've been fishing exactly once and was advised to never, ever, attempt it (really ever) again.
It was several years ago and an impromptu night fishing trip after a wedding in Houston. Even then, I never said no to a good adventure. Around midnight, when most of the guests were headed to their rooms, a few cousins and I headed down to Kemah for night fishing off a private dock in Galveston Bay. A family friend had built (and rebuilt, post-hurricanes) a weekend getaway house, complete with fish lights installed in the bottom of the bay. In the wee hours of the morning, I learned how to bait a hook with frozen shrimp and cast properly. Almost every time we cast, we hooked a fish. I even caught a fighter that brought the rest of the family running down to my end of the dock when they saw how my pole was doubled over and liable to snap. All the while, they told me this level of action was not a normal fishing experience by any means and that I've been ruined for all subsequent "real" fishing trips.
Fast forward to Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Despite the warnings I've been given, I agreed to go when the boyfriend proposed a lazy fishing expedition at a local public park "lake" meant to satisfy suburban yuppie yearnings for the outdoors without having to drive much farther than the local Whole Foods. As added insurance policies against boredom in case fishing turned out to be as uneventful as everyone has told me, I brought my DSLR, a canister of soap bubbles, and an iPad.
It ended up being a lot of fun and despite not catching anything, I enjoyed the sun and lounging about fiddling with my camera. The photos were definitely underexposed and required a lot of editing in post as a result of what I like to call "lazy photography" - I've been so used to shooting with wide apertures due to low light or motion situations, I forgot to increase the shutter speed when shooting with a narrow aperture. I will definitely be planning some treks to practice using narrow apertures in the near future, but I love how "arty" some of the shots below came out.
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| The reel in an instant |
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| Close up of the basket that would have stored fish if we had caught anything. However genuine to the fishing experience, the little voice of practicality in my head wanted to know how this was a good vessel since it wasn't water tight and would drip fishy water everywhere... I still wonder about that |
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| Lots of turtles at this particular park lake... I wonder if some were former pets |
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| Ducks and geese also |
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| The bubbles I brought with some post-editing to exaggerate their shapes. As it turns out, it's hard to both blow bubbles and photograph them before they sink and pop. |
Active Shooting Hours: 1.5
Review Hours: 1
Hours to Date: 144.5