Ray Klefstad's Tips for Photographing Fish ;^)

Here are some Dos and Don'ts that may help you record your fish memories with good results. For best results, go through the examples after reading each tip in order listed in the table below. Note this is mostly a joke, but the photo tips are real. The humor is that these fish really are huge. The two large Gulf grouper and the 35 lb Yellowtail were shot (with ease) by Ron Mullins in Baja Mexico. Both grouper were kill shots - perfectly placed in the brain. These are extremely powerful fish. One of the grouper twitched while Ron was ascending and it put a 90 degree bend in the shaft. He made me lift them for the photograph, and I can assure you, I couldn't lift that grouper above my waist. Ron had to help me lift it then quickly snap the photo as I leaned behind the fish to support its weight. We didn't bring a scale, but he esitimated the fish was well over 100 lbs. Ron mentioned there was one right next to the big one that was over twice the size. He took the smaller because they are more tender and therefore better eating, but this one was really too big to be good eating anyway.

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Quality	Hint	Example
Don't	have big person hold a small fish (if you have kids, get one of them to hold the fish)	click here for example
Don't	leave blood or dirt on your fish	click here for example
Do	hold the fish to present the best side (so as to avoid showing a nasty spear shot). The example was Bill McIntyre holding a white seabass he had dispatched before he had figured out how to do it correctly and the whole head of the fish was very mangled.
Do	hold the fish way out in front of you and use a wide angle lens and fill the frame with the fish so the fish will look much larger	Click here for blow-up.
Do	make yourself look smaller (and your fish look bigger) by kneeling or sitting (this is more difficult for big people) and place smaller fish in view closer to the camera	Click here for blow-up.
Do	let facial expressions show you are straining to lift the fish	Click here for blow-up.
Do	add something to your picture to make an interesting story such as ``I shot this 35 pound Yellowtail and a 200 pound Gulf Grouper came up and ate it, so I fought that big grouper with my bare hands and dragged him up onto the beach where a photographer was waiting to shoot my picture...''	Click here for blow-up.