Stock Photo Gallery

Friday, September 18, 2009

Mike Laptew strikes again

Now, if you like fishing and fish in general and you don’t know who Mike Laptew is you are missing something. Mike, apart from being a very good friend of mine, is a breed among a seal (don’t take it personally Mike, nothing to do with the size of your waist), a Striped Bass, Richard Attenborough and some sort of Yankee.

He’s a photographer and a film maker. He is one of my teachers, the only one who could give me serious advise about fishing photography (Focus on the eye of the fish Nicola, if the eye is focused the picture is good!). He’s also a fisherman and he dives. Or is a diver and he fishes … Dunno, but the fact is that he knows one thing or two about finned critters. He’s based is Narragansett Bay, RI but he travels the world quite extensively so one day you might find him in some tropical waters, swimming with Whale Sharks or filming a school of Sailfish.

Having spent some …her…., don’t know how many years in the water, and when I mean IN I really mean inside it, he has become an expert on the behaviour of many different species of fish. Striped Bass, Flukes, Bluefish, you name it. Thus, the other day, when we were on the phone he told me this amazing story that I will report to you in the best possible way, through his killer photos.

These are Mike’s word describing these images:

“These images show two of the varied approaches they make as they make a strafing run on the small bay anchovies they were feeding on. Otherwise, they are in the tight ball formation you see in the third shot “Blue Angels”… oftentimes they are in a more fish-like, football shape (American football) which is probably as effective a defensive posture as it is an offensive formation.”

Mike told me he stayed with those False Albacores for 90 minutes. Had time to go back to shore, cancel some bad shots, go back again and take some more 50 photos. Imagine how difficult this is with such fast running pelagic fish that also have keen eyesight and don’t like too much being messing with people around, but this time Mike has been blessed with a true National Geographic feature and took full advantage of it.

Thanks my friend, is a great honour for me to be able to post your stuff here.

See more stuff from Mike in his website: www.laptewproductions.com

He’s also in Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/mike.laptew?ref=name

Mike is working on a new video, chek the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwD5Opz35zA&feature=player_embedded

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A good man in an evil world

Life is strange, and this is one of the main reason why is worth living it as deep as you can. One day you’re trashed, work sucks, had an argue with your wife, and the following day somebody rings at your door and a big box is handed to you.

You know who’ve sent you the box, is a friend down in Andalusia, he called you the day before to let you know that something would come, but you don’t have a clue of what is inside the box. The BIG box, I should say, and is heavy.

The phone rings, you leave the package in the hall and answer. Blah, blah, blah, hang up. Damn! Lots of e-mails coming, you start opening them and replying. The box sits there waiting for you. Finally things get back to normal and you can resume your unpacking.

What the hell is this? A big bag shows inside the box and is quite heavy. You start pulling it from the cardboard parcel and you can read on one side “Starblitz”. A bell rings. Your dormant brain cannot realize straight away but you have a hint. Then...is light! Beat me; Starblitz is a lighting equipment maker so this must be a studio lighting kit or something like this.

The bag’s zip slides too slow compared to my heartbeat, but when I finally manage to open it every doubt disappear. It truly is a Studio Lighting Kit (Starblitz DI 160) with 3 lights, 2 soft boxes, one translucent umbrella, 3 stands, 1 radio trigger/receiver and the comfortable and handy bag.

Cannot believe it. During the last few weeks I have been browsing the various options to put together a studio light set and all of a sudden, without knowing my thoughts somebody has the idea to buy it for me.

Paquito, thank you very much, this is THE GIFT, one of the few things that in this very moment I could have asked for and really wanted to have.

If you’re a good human being, and I think I belong to this league, those you pick as your friends are good too and things like this can happen. Yes, I’m a lucky bastard!

I’ll be posting some pictures shot with the kit soon.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Black Pharaoh

Have you ever met a Black Pharaoh? Neither do I but I’m sure I met a descendant of the inhabitants of the Kingdome of “Kush” as the Egyptian called.

The Nubians where established in the northern part of Sudan and southern part of Egypt and their history reverts as far as 2000 B.C. First conquered by the Egyptians for their mines of Gold, the Ivory, cattle and Slaves, they got their freedom back around 700 B.C, not only chasing the Egyptians away but also gradually conquering the south of the country, founding the dynasty of the Black Pharaohs that will later unify and rule the whole of Egypt.

Well, I met my new my friend Negrashy, a true Nubian, on my latest trip. We were floating on some sort of fishing boat, scouting a new area in the south, and he was the man in control of the local burocracy and logistic. Is a great guy and we had a jolly good time together, but the real reason why is here in my blog, friendship apart, is because an early morning I took a nice picture of him.

Nikon Flash SB800 shot through a Honlphoto Grid. Nikon D90 with the Tokina 11-16, not the most flattering lens for a portrait, yet quite successful here, with this “tight” close up, as tight as a such wide angle allows.