Riding Shotgun on The Arkansas

The Arkansas River is Serious

It has cut the Royal Gorge to a depth of 1,250 feet, more than 300 feet deeper than Lake Michigan. And in the Great Plains, it's over a half mile wide in some places.

The Arkansas has always been a critical waterway, and you can trace much of how history unfolded over the last few centuries along its banks, but the Arkansas that flows through my backyard in Buena Vista, CO merely hints at the scale of its downstream flows. Further up the valley, near Leadville, you'll find its headwaters. It's debatable where she turns from a collection of streams into a river, but it is astonishing to see its origins and be able to step once or twice across something that so dramatically shapes the world immediately around it and beyond.

In these parts, the river is an ecological treasure and draws visitors from all over for world-class paddling and, possibly even more exceptional, the fly fishing.

The section of the Arkansas that flows from Leadville south to Parkdale boasts over 100 miles of gold medal trout waters, the longest stretch in North America.

So a few weeks ago, just as we started to get some hints of spring around the corner, when I noticed that my friend Frankie (@frankiespontelli) had posted on Instagram looking for someone to assist on an upcoming fly-fishing shoot for @nowthisiscolorado, I got right into his DMs. I'd just spent the seven months prior locked in my office, cranking through 14-hour days to mostly finish writing the code behind GearBridge and was feeling like I'd forgotten both the smell of fresh air and how to use my camera.

The job was simple and sounded like a lot of fun: meet up with Lance and Skylar of @pesca_vida (that's español for fish_life – you're welcome), shoot some video and stills to capture the feeling of a morning on the river, hit a local brewery and then call it a day.

As has been the case with almost everyone I've met here in the Arkansas Valley, Skylar and Lance are good folks, lovers of the outdoors and generally doing interesting things with their lives. The kind of people you hope to be surrounded by in your community.

River Photography

Now, neither Frankie or I had our own waders and, if there's one thing I've learned from photographing around rivers, it's that the best shots are taken from in the river, usually kneeling and trying to get your lens just above the surface of the water. Generously, Lance lent us a couple of old pairs. Frankie looked like a natural in his. We won't talk about how mine fit, but I was very grateful to have them to get shots like this.

In fact, shooting fishermen in a river is pretty decent practice with a dynamic, moving subject while also trying to navigate the forces of flowing water and a rocky, unstable riverbed. The process of getting used to shooting in this environment can be tricky with lots of stumbles and near falls that you want to get used to in a relatively low-stakes situation so that it's more second nature as you progress into photographic opportunities that will get the adrenaline pumping faster.

As you can see between these two images (above and below), the principles of photographing action on land hold true in the water. Positioning yourself at or below your subject's eye line creates a more engaging feeling in the frame. And, when using a long lens – these were both shot on a Sony 100-400 – the lower perspective extends the distance to your background, accentuating focal compression and including elements that add to the image. Also, I'll never pass up an opportunity to include a bear photo in making a point. The bear has a fish. It fits.

The Fishing & The Plan

It didn't take long before photographing casting turned to photographing fish on the lines, for Skylar at least. If I recall, she caught five... five more than Lance, but he did have a pretty casting technique.

This is where having multiple photographers on a shoot like this helps a lot and there are a few key things to take away that'll help in planning your shoots. First, is balance – while I was shooting on the long lens for much of the morning, Frankie was taking care of the more difficult wider shots, video and drone work. We were also always trying to cover the scene from different angles. The idea is to get coverage that can tell the whole story, with wide establishing shots, tighter action shots and detail highlights.

Then there's that word planning. Frankie was a legitimate pro on this shoot and it was so interesting for an amateur like myself to observe. He had a handle on all aspects of the shoot several days in advance and came prepared with a shot list, maybe the most important piece.

Various Brewed Beverages and More Camera Stuff

We wrapped up the river shoot with some hot coffee, enjoyed with a view of snow-capped Mt. Princeton. And I finally got a BTS shot that included Frankie. This frame was also the closest I came to totally eating it in the water – where I was standing at this moment, the current was pretty strong and the water was just a few inches below my waders and, I have to say, if I'm going to sacrifice my camera and lens, I kind of want it to be for a cooler shot (no offense to these three)

At this point, my job was basically done – maybe help ferry some gear back to the trucks – but otherwise I was treating it as a well-deserved day off of work and tagged along for the final shots at Elevation Beer Company in Poncha Springs. I snapped a few more photos to show Frankie at work and to really earn the IPA that was waiting for me.

Thanks to Frankie, Lance, and Skylar for the day, and to @nowthisiscolorado for putting it together. I'm grateful, as always, for good friends, beautiful places and mornings like this. Here's a quick look at the resulting content the crew shared a few weeks later. Please go check it out and support their work. Until next time :)