I think I'm a good photographer, at least with real cameras, and decent with the iPhone. I've shot it all, from spot news, to portriats, to pro sports, to interiors and exteriors, and even the dreaded food photography. It's hard to make food (both tasty and nasty) look good sometimes. Each subject has it's thing. My jam is news, and spot news is my favorite. And as I wrote this I started thinking back to 2007 when Marc and I started Agency New Jersey, a photo agency providing newspapers and magazines photographs from all things New Jersey. We even had an office on Press Row (below) in the Statehouse where we covered politics, probably my second favorite thing. Why did I like politics? Becasue I always wanted to get shots of them before they went down. They're just greasy.
In our Statehouse office on Press Row transmitting images before deadline, 2008
Since you never know where these posts are going, here we go, and I could write about this for days. Before we started the agency I shot for the Associated Press, Getty Images, The New York Post, The New York Times and The Star Ledger. Back then that was my full-time gig. So many stories and images, but, here's two cool portriat's I did. The one below is from a WWII and Korea War Veteran Frank Priam, who I photographed in his home in Edison. I looked Mr. Priam up and read he passed away in 2019 at the age of 90. Below the image is the caption that goes with the image.
06092006CA- World War II and Korean War veteran Frank Priam, now 77, wears his cap and uniform from the Korean War and holds a service picture taken in 1954 while he was in the Navy, now at his home in Edison. The Priams are in a fight to get the benefits Priam is entitled to because of his service. Photo: Colin Archer/ For the Star Ledger
And the below is a portrait of some guitar player I made, I think his name is Les Paul? Kidding of course. For that one I got a call from the Associated Press who wanted to get some more "current" images of the famous guitar maker and player before he passed away, while he was still active and playing. It's not wrong, they do it all the time. Back in the gool old days photo editors didn't have an unlimited amount of places to grab stock images from, so if they wanted to have one in the tank, they needed to create and assignment, and pay a photographer. That day I was in Red Bank, and he was scheduled to play at The Iridium in Manhattan that night. I had about 2 hours before the shoot was scheduled, and I had less than an hour with him. The rest is history.
02.26.2007 92 year old rock legend and guitarist Les Paul performs at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, February 26, 2007. Colin Archer/Associated Press
I remember one day Governor Corzine was holding a press conference at Drumthwacket, the Governor's residence in Princeton. Now the thing I always tried to do was get a picture that no other photographer was getting. You could stay with the pack, or, like me, push the issue with the press office people and move around. So as I did my thing and tried to capture him speaking to the press I moved behind him on the podium. Now I'm looking through the lens, no knowing where I physically was, until I saw him turn and stare into my lens....whoops. But it made for a good image, and a laugh from the press pool. Sorry Jon.
One of my favorite spot news stories is this. So Marc and I would switch on and off covering New Jersey breaking news each night. He would take nights I had my kids and I would the other nights. During the day we were both out shooting covering assignments. So one night I'm covering, but have to go to Marc's house in Hazlet to pick up the news pagers and camera equipment. I was in the process of switching from Nikon to Canon and he had the long telephoto lenses and camera bodies, which at that time shot better than Nikons in low light. So I jump in my car, I was living in Ocean Township at the time, and head north on the Parkway. My outfit consisted up a sweatshirt, no
T-shirt, Crocs, and a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants pajama bottoms that belonged to my second wife's deceased husband, thanks Jim Dowman. You can justy imagine how they looked on me. They made their way around the house and we all, at one time or another, took a shot at wearing them, why I don't really know, but they were very comfortable.
So I get to Hazlet and the pager goes off. "Shooting on the outside, Jersey City, DOA on the street". Now that's juicy. People who are shot and are transported to the hospital don't make for good images escept for crime scene tape, cops milling about, and the crowd. So Marc's says he'll go because of my get-up, but it's my turn to cover , so "I'll take it". So I motor up to Fairmont Avenue
in Jersey City and find a parking spot and head to the scene. It's about 11 pm, so there's people lined up around the crime scene, there's a body under a sheet, and not any really good images to make. So I get an idea. They are letting residents of the 4 story tenement into the building, mmmmmm. So I hide my camera under my sweatshirt, and remember I look like I just rolled out of bed, and head under the tape and into the building. Now what? Long story short, I know the shot I want, and know how to get there, thanks to my days as a fireman. So I knocked on a residents door on the top floor, ask for permission to go throiugh their apartment, out the window, and up the fire escape ladder to get to the roof.
10.23.07 Jersey City - Crime scene investigators process the scene where Michael Hemingway, 27, was shot to death on Fairmount Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey, October 23, 2007. Hemingway was shot after an argument with the alleged shooter who fled the scene. Photo by Colin Archer/Agency New Jersey
Now I can't be seen and have to plan my picture out before I peer over the parapet wall on the roof, and I might only get one shot......mic drop. How good of a news photo is that? I went on to win some press photographers awards that year for spot news. I loved that stuff, and beating out the competition. We ran from the George Washington Bridge to Cape May, and all points in between. We stayed full time until around 2009-2010 when the newspaper industry tanked and news and dark rooms were eviscerated with buyouts. Photo editors were under such a tight budget, they either couldn't pay or didn't want to pay. That's about when the soccer mom's ( or dad's) and their iPhone images became photojournalism, and when everything became online. I remember the day when the NY Times called us and said they were stopping the New Jersey section, and taking those funds to start a San Fransisco section out west. Our state went from it's own section, to a mix in the Metro Section, to a page, then just a mention hear and there. Sad end of an era. It was also around that time I went into guiding full time and Marc took a gig with Apple. You can read my blog from 2009 when I try and put my next move in words, HERE.
Okay, thanks for letting me go off on a tangent on that, I really enjoyed going down photo memory lane. But back to fly fishing. One specialty is photographing flies. Some are great at it, just look at the books out there, and even the posts you see online. Me, I suck at photographing flies, and I don't know why. But anyway, that fly above, to me, is just about perfect. But I'll start with the early 36 degree morning with enough of a NW to make my hands numb. Walleye winning. Me losing.
So yesterday after my inventory of flies I know I need bigger flies, more bunkerish for rivers other than the Delaware for the spring. This morning I sat down to knock one out. And even though I don't have Jim Matson's technique, or correct parts to tie one of his flies, I took a piece of what he did and incorporated it into my latest creation. You see Jim thought outside of the box, as
you all know. If my bud was alive Laura would have to set up a bedroom for me as I would be out there for days on end around work. I know we would be just trying and tying and pushing "norms" to the nexty level. So today I tied in one of his tube and disc's, I'll call it that, and I liked what I saw. You can see above what I came up with on my first attempt. I will be back at it and do some things differently. But what it does is, and I know the pros do it with Hollow and reverse ties, is it sets the "bulk" wherever you tie one in. And I think you can get away with one, although Jim tied a series of them, especially on Beast Fleyes. The important thing is to make sure you have enough taper on the back end so the fly isn't squared away. The fly at the top, which I love for the Navesink, finished
up nicely, comingh in at just under 9 inches, and very full, but not over material full. But after a combing the angle on the bottom tie of Squimpish Hair was off. It's the only part of the fly I had to put the scizzors to. That fly has bucktail as the base, then ostrich, then SF Blend, then some real yak hair, and then some Matson Mix. I finished it off with the 12mm eyes I got the other day in the mail.
One I can say I learned. To get a full body taper you either need to do it with bucktail by reversing your tie, having some bulk in there when you build up a dam, tying Popovic's bulkhead style up front, or putting in a Matson tube and disc type of something. While my above fly could pass for a calamari or a squid when laying on the table, I hope the party in the bacvk, in the way of tied in ostrich, gives it some life and gets a bass' attention.