In With Some New

A new site and a new blog for my photography work. Sachet on over for a goosie!

www.twphoto.fi

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Mikko's Beauly Snow Fly

It's always jovial when I get a call from my buddy Mikko as one of two events are proposed:
An evening of fine beer and maybe a tipple of a good single malt or there's a need for fly fishing related photo's.

This particular job is a step by step tying guide to one of Mikko's patterns 'The Beauly Snow Fly' and it's destined for a fine salmon fishing magazine by the name of 'Chasing Silver'.

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Reverse Lens Macro

Culicidae! Or more widely known to the world of fly fishing, as buzzers.

I took these photo's with my reverse lens macro set up. The lens is an old MF Vivitar 24 f/2.8 film lens, bought for £40/50€ from ebay, UK and it's attached to the camera via a Nikon BR2A reverse ring bought for around 35 euros from www.digitarvike.fi.

Reverse lens macro is a very effective alternative to the more expensive lenses. The most common lenses to use in reverse are 50mm and 24mm primes.
When using a reversed 50mm prime lens the magnification is equal to a dedicated macro lens at 1:1 life size. When using a 24mm prime lens the total magnification is nearly 3 x life size. These magnifications can also be increased by using extension tubes.

Reverse lens macro requires full manual control and is also a much more difficult method than using a dedicated macro lens set up.
To achieve good depth of field you will need to be shooting at apertures of f/11 to f/16, often the most narrow of apertures available with such prime lenses.
This causes the view finder to become very dark and difficult to achieve accurate focus.


However, Nikon camera's and NIkon fit lenses have a small aperture lever next to the rear element of the lens, if this lever is flicked and held upward, the aperture blades open up, allowing much more light through so you focus correctly, usually this means moving yourself (and the camera) either forwards or backwards and then releasing the lever before you take the shot.



Tricky to master but a great alternative which also offers great magnification capability and remaining highly compact and lightweight.

Flash is vital ingredient in macro photography. These shots were taken with a single Nikon SB-800 speedlight, attached via an off camera cord and mounted to a Manfrotto macro bracket.



Here is a Nikon D200 with BR-2A reverse ring and a manual focus Vivitar 24mm.
Lenses are mounted to the reverse ring via the 52mm filter thread. You can mount lenses with filters threads very slightly larger and very slightly smaller with the aid of stepping rings.

The onboard flash is sufficient if a little lacking in power.
Click here for an example frame taken using the on board flash.

Diffusion is fairly important when using flash. When diffusing the onboard flash you can either use a piece of opaque white plastic like a milk carton or a sheet of white foam.
Flash guns or Speedlights have a variety of diffusion available from clip on diffusion domes or Stofen diffusers to small softboxes available in a range of sizes.

I usually have an SB-800 mounted to a macro bracket and then attached to the camera's hot shoe via a Nikon SC-28 extension cord as this has much more power and can sync at faster shutter speeds.

Recommended resources:
Mark Dijstelberge Photography
Interview with Alby Oakshott
More macro on Flickr
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Apple Caddis

It's been a long time since I sat down at a vice.
I'm very grateful to have been much busier with photography over the last year and a half but somethings I haven't been able to do or even think about doing for quite some time.
I shoot on locations portraits predominantly but when the season starts in Autumn, I cover figure skating events and have worked with the likes of Getty Images earlier this year.

My other hobbies and favored pass times like playing guitar/recording my own music, fishing and drawing have all had to suffer while I establish my business.

Being self employed is awesome and I enjoy the blood, sweat and tears that goes into establishing, maintaining and developing my business but I do yearn to get back out to the rivers and lakes of Finland. Maybe even go far a field sometime too.

Anyway, here's my first tie in over a year.

Thread: Sheer Olive 14/0
Hook: Tiemco 103BL Size 11
Body: Chartreuse CDC Hackle followed by Dark Grey CDC Hackle
Wing: Olive Deer Hair >> Read more >>

The 'Last' Cast

It's the 1st of July, were in Porvoo, it's blazingly hot, the water is scorchio 22°c and we must be very optimistic indeed to go out to sea, fly fishing for pike.








Since I migrated to Finland in late 06, there have been many business related ups, a few business related downs and various developments which have established me and kept me and my business afloat.
My good friend Jani is responsible for many of these opportunities to which I am eternally grateful. Without his friendship and help, I really don't know where I would be now.



Over the past year I'm thankful to have been much busier with my photography, there have a been some side effects however, which are my hobbies and favorite pass times have been firmly pushed to the back burner.
So far this summer, I have had a few chances to pick up a fly rod and re-acquaint myself a little.




Jani and I knew that the odds were against us today with 22°c water but we knew we would have plenty of fun.

We weren't wrong, after a couple of hours, Jani hawk eyed a wee vessel out on the horizon signaling for help, 'Avast me hearties!' and oo'er we went to investigate.
It turned out that our fellow dogs of the sea had run out of go juice and needed a tow to the nearest pitstop.

After such good deeds Jani suggested that we should at least be offered a little fortune from Ahti, the Lord Of the Sea.

We weren't wrong there either!





Jani cast out and fished a hollow deceiver which aggravated a fair sized fish into biting, another cast provoked the same result but sadly no catch.
The size of the splash from this monster was pretty damn big and more than enough to inspire us to fish that particular area for a little longer.

We fished more nooks and crannies, spent some time cruising around, enjoying the cool ocean spray, the fantastic views and very warm weather.

I was having a superb day and I appreciated Jani bringing me out on the trip so much, I just had to take my hat of to him.


"Thank you Sir"





A little more cruising and fishing followed and then Jani said it's time for the 'last cast'.

The rod sang out a sharp crack and sent the mid and upper sections out with the shooting head.

So the 'last cast' indeed it was.




Despite our breakages and absence of catches, we had a very enjoyable day. Having a good laugh is of fundamental importance and as you can see, we laughed quite a bit.

We made some plans to make more of these trips on the coming months, the waters of Porvoo play home to some very large and healthy fish and when the water temperature is much cooler, we can bet that there will be much more action.

More to come.

Flickr Gallery >> Read more >>

The Burkheimer Factor

Tuesday I had a call from Mikko, a very good friend of mine. Mikko manages Helsinki Spey Clave, a very high calibre fly fishing store in downtown Helsinki.
Mikko was in need of some fairly urgent product images for a last minute advertisement that would appear in a mainstream fishing magazine, Perhokalastus.

Not directly fly tying related stuff here but close enough for me to post and ramble about.

The products, happened to be some of the worlds finest fly rods made by C F Burkheimer, specifically made for the store, brandishing a 'Helsinki Spey Clave' signature series logo on the rod blank.

Time was not on our side (when is it ever?) and the only available location at such short notice was 'Studio El Living Room'. During the day I had been shooting a few tennis matches for a potential client but did manage to whip up a wee sketch:


So at least I had a rough idea. I was aiming for a very standard product type shot, hanging the rods with monofilament line in front of a white background. Not the most exciting look but safe for such a time sensitive job. If I had more time, I would have liked to shoot the rods against some matured wood, like oak or rosewood maybe, peppered with relative accompaniments.




Here you can see Mikko hanging a rod for it's portrait on the ghetto boom rig, constructed from two light stands and a Manfrotto Super Clamp. The boom for the softbox was weighted with a mini dumbell in a camo shoulder bag ;)
The flagged flashes for the background are set in a cross over pattern, blowing out the opposite side of the wall nice and evenly. I needed a fairly rapid recycle time so these backlights were at 1/8th power.

The key light being the Lastolite Ezybox, was at 1/2nd power, the specular highlight granted by the softbox didn't quite make it all the way along the rod blank so this highlight had to be continued with a SB-800 at 1/4th power with a shoot through umbrella. Originally we were going to light a large white bed sheet with two speedlights to give a nice long strip of light but these plans were thwarted after discovering white bed linens are now apparently extinct.

We also employed the assistance of a large white piece of board to reflect a little light under the rod to soften the shadows.

All in all, I think we did a good job, total set up and shooting time was just under three hours.
Needless to say, after striking down, there was much merriment and rejoicing! >> Read more >>

The Dawn Of A New Era

Welcome to TNT.

My name is Tomas, I'm a photographer living in Helsinki, Finland.
Not so often these days, randomly and rather sporadically, I get a little time to myself and during these rare and short phenomenon, you can find me fishing, fly tying and shooting things fishing related, or at least trying to.

If your not a stranger to TNT, you'll have noticed that things have changed a little since your last visit.

Here you can find my realistic and conventional fly fishing patterns, tips, tricks, stories, step by step guides and other foolish piggery jokery.

Stay tuned for new patterns, trip stories, entomological macro photography and step by step tying guides.

For all questions, enquiries and info on ordering flies, please email info@tntflies.com >> Read more >>