AxisGo iPhone housing and a little luck produce stunning fish image
by Sonny Culp
The goal of any guided flats fishing adventure should always be some variation of improvement as an angler, having fun, and catching some fish. But the memories are what we bring home, so having a few fish pictures to share and savor is a big part of the overall experience. It’s always been that way, especially with the acrobatic and dinosaur-like Megalops atlanticus.
If you’re not convinced, just take a look at the famous fly-caught tarpon images taken by A. W. Dimock more than 100 years ago. How difficult it must have been to record and produce images like that. But he knew it was a worthwhile endeavor. Today, we all show up on the skiff with our fully charged iPhone or GoPro, the rain covers relegated to a lesser status than they used to be. But capturing decent fish pictures can be a challenge, and no matter the level of technological advancements in camera gear, some photographers are better at it than others.
I’m a point-and-shoot guy, simply hoping for the best. Sometimes, only family and friends might see the shots, but every once in a while I’m able to capture an image that really stands out. Such was the case on a recent tarpon trip to Southwest Florida.
I was fishing with Andy Lee out of Marco Island. The spring migration offers shots at swimmers on the outside when the tide, water clarity, sun, and wind all cooperate. Yep, you need all of those elements. We were getting our share of shots, and after landing a couple of smaller fish, a bigger girl ate the fly. She really gave us both a fit, and as the fight neared its finale, I started thinking about getting a photo of what appeared to be the fish of the trip.
If catching and landing a tarpon is a team sport, so is getting a quality picture of one. My iPhone 10 was already loaded inside its AxisGo waterproof housing, which is equipped with a pistol grip with a 6-inch dome housing around the lens. With the subdued fish on the sunny side of the boat, Andy readied the tarpon for release.
The shot you see here was the simple result of a good deal of pointing and shooting, which was made easier by the trigger-finger pistol grip. The only tip I can offer is that the dome lens effect requires the camera to be held much closer to your subject than you might think.
We released the fish and later scrolled through the results in the cab of Andy’s truck on the way home. Among the clutter of images facing certain deletion, there it was, a “keeper” as we say in fishing.
