My interview by the guys at Gamefishing India

Gamefishing India Updates: Tackle and Tech Talk with Nicola Zingarelli of Car...:     One of our first big groups back in 2007 was an Italian group led by Nicola Zingarelli an outdoor writer, professional recreationa...

Molix' Jugolo Casting Jig

It is not us, is the fishermen who say that the Jugolo Casting Jig is probably one of the most effective casting jigs available in the market. We could try and sell you this lure with long and intrigued descriptions but, to be perfectly honest with you, we believe that either you google the web to see what others have to say about it or you just buy a couple and test it.

Do you fish for Bonitos? It will work. Sea Bass maybe? It will sure work? Sea Trouts? We bet it will do great.

Not much more to say, pick your favorite color and cast it. Then join the club of Jugolo's Lovers

Check out the renewed Caranx.net/store on-line shop

Please check out the renewed on-line shop, we hope it will improve your shopping experience. 

Don't forget to visit our sale items section

We are at your disposal if you need any suggestion, we fish since more than 40 years, 25 of those dedicated to lure fishing with almost 20 years of tropical popping and jigging experience.

Caranx.net shop is being on the market for 10 years now helping fishermen to find their best tackle.

See you around

ciao

Nativity scene from a Strobist point of view

Nativity scene from a Strobist point of view, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

When I saw this nativity scene in a small church in Spain I thought it could be a nice subject to light with a couple of speedlights. The church was empty; we were the only visitors so I decided to give it a try. After a bunch of non successful attempts I switched a bit the concept and went for a harsh backlighting and the whole mood of the scene changed.

I placed an SB800 on its small stand on the extreme left corner of the image gelled with a full CTO, wanted to recreate a sunset light as it could be seen in the region. The other SB800 was on my left side too with a Lastolite Softbox III in order to open the shadows on the figures and trying to illuminate a bit the inside of the shack. Couldn’t achieve that hence I asked my daughter to hold my led lamp and point at the Child Jesus, reduced the shutter speed to 1/20sec at f11 and took few shots until I managed to get some light on the main scene.

F11 might seem a bit too much but I guessed this would give me quite a decent depth of field, which is what eventually happened. Thus I had to push my ISO to 500. One extra flash would have given me a better control on the shadows of the figures closer to the lens but that’s what I had with me and I tried to get the best out of it

Windmills in Consuegras, Toledo, Spain.

Windmills in Consuegras, Toledo, Spain., a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

This is quite a cool place in the hearth of Spain, Castilla la Mancha, the land of Don Quijote. In Consuegras there are 12 pretty well preserved windmill dating back to the half end of the XVI century. One of them can also be visited inside, I have images of that too, I might post them soon.

As usual the sun in the image is a must go for me, I love to play with such strong contrast that adds a dramatic touch to the whole image. I think that the little girl standing in the middle of the two windmills is quite a fortunate coincidence. I had to lift the foreground a bit in Lightroom, in fact even though I used a +2 exposure compensation still it was a bit underexposed.

This time I had with me the 10.5mm f2.8 Nikon fisheye, what a good chance to use it. It served me well during the day; in fact I left it on for the most part of the visit, I kind of missed it having not used it for a long time. Is a fun lens, nobody can deny it, can it be tiring? Yes, absolutely, but used with moderation still kicks some ass. ISO 200 f11 1/250sec on a Nikon D90

Molix WTD 110. Studio shot in a fish tank

Molix WTD 110. Studio shot in a fish tank, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

These aquarium or fish tank shots are becoming a sort of trademark of my work within the fishing tackle industry. I learnt how to make them through Flickr, in fact one day I found the photos of a guy that was shooting old wooden lures in a plastic bowl and the result impressed me.

I had a small fish tank built for me and started playing with the lights and the lures splashing. I did my first attempts with a white background, way easier to handle, and then switched to a black background, more tricky yet with a better outcome. The problem is not the shot itself but the post production work that it takes to achieve a clean result, in fact, as you can imagine, bubbles and reflections – desired or not – are the by catch of such shots.

For this kind of photos I use quite a simple set up. Here we have two lights, one is on camera right higher than the lure at a 45º angle and the other one is on camera left more or less at the same height as the lure. The higher speedlight goes through a Honlphoto Grid, for a better control of the light, while the other flash as bare or sometimes with a small softbox, like Lumiquest Softbox III.

Dozens of boats with two strokes engines on the beach in Oman

Dozens of boats with two strokes engines on the beach in Oman, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

Talk about perspective and depth of field...I was quite lucky, I could shoot at 1/250 at f10 with a 18-70 Nikon zoom at 63mm, hence keep a decent DOF.

These are dozens of boats with Yamaha enduro, two strokes engines, forbidden in many western countries, on the beach in Oman. This was quite an impressive view to be honest, in the morning you would see none while in the afternoon they would all be sitting under the sun.

I think is quite nicer in B&W, the color version was dull with that bleached sky.

Molix' Mini Fish Grip studio shot

Molix' Mini Fish Grip studio shot, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

Is one light enough? It depends on what you're looking for. In this case I didn't want the whole product to be 100% discernible, hence I put one 40" Lastolite Umbrella Softbox (big soft wrapping light) with a SB800 and bang!

Thus, if I wanted to have the right side of the grip to be more visible I should have used, at least, one reflector or another light with a softbox for example. This way is more of an emotional and dramatic shot rather than a straight product shot.

Comments are apreciated, thanks.

Swan against black background

Swan against black background, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

Don't know how you guys feel about this kind of images. Looks a tad unreal, with such a black background, but thing is that apart from few blotches it was pretty dark already. I only edited to make it completely black, in order to have the swan popping out against it. Looks like a "space swan" to me, but I do like the reflections and the strong contrast

Close up of a Red porgy caught on a Virago soft plastic

Close up of a Red porgy caught on a Virago soft plastic, a photo by Nicola Zingarelli on Flickr.

Lately I have dropped a bit the ultra wide angle lenses and put back the old Nikkor 35mm f2.

There are several reasons for me for such change. I'm looking for different framings, the focus is very accurate (something that is very important on a D7000) and I can get pretty close to the subject.

This lens allows me to shoot some cool close ups and most of all delivers an amazing amount of details. Open the full size version of this shot and you will see it by yourself.

Too bad the Nikkor 20mm f2.8 doesn't seem to be such a good lens otherwise I would have dropped it in my bag already, there's a nice second hand offer.

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