Hey guys,
First time posting in this section of the forum but was hoping some of you might share some thoughts on a photograph I've recently made.
As a full time photographer, making the decision to focus 100% of my efforts on fishing-related photo & video was one I made with a little apprehension. Luckily however, I've been blessed to have found enough work to keep me busy. Prior to making the switch to fishing-photo only, I shot mostly commercial/advertising stuff. As a result, it's become a lot harder to call what I do "photography" as it's in fact "digital art". Referring to myself as a "photographer" isn't a fair, or accurate title, it's just... easier than explaining the specifics of my workflow I guess.
In any case, my hope is to depict the world of fishing with the same visual integrity seen in other sports. I'm fond of the way other sports are represented, and there are in fact some incredible images floating around in fishing. My personal opinion however, is that fishing isn't (always) getting it's fair shake on the visual end of the spectrum. I'd really love to play some kind of roll in changing that. Perhaps that's pathetically naive, but I'm going to try.
The image shown below is my latest and was made as a personal project in a print/web ad style, not as a product or catalog photo.
I'd like to know what you think of it. What did I do wrong? - (outside of opting to leave line off the splitring as I found it to be very distracting when I tried). What could I improve? And would you like to see more of this style of work featured in and throughout the fishing world? I've attached a "before/after" of the image for reference. After the lure was extracted from it's background it was added to a composite with 36 other photos to create the finished scene.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Before/After:
