Reader Pascal sets sail to shoot the annual opening of the fishing season in the amazing Rodrigues Island
Reader Pascal Lagesse sets sail to photograph the annual opening of the fishing season, where there’s not a line or hook to be found…
Every year on 1 March in Rodrigues Island, the residents launch net fishing season. Groups of fishermen and women join forces and set nets in the lagoon to catch fish. In their wooden pirogues (long, narrow canoes made from a tree trunk) they drive the fish to the nets by banging on the sides of the boats.
It’s an extraordinary event and is a fantastic opportunity for photographers to get some stellar shots, because there’s so much going on, with fish jumping in and out of the nets, and everyone shouting orders.
The choice of lenses is critical for this kind of adventure. You need a whole range of lenses to keep up. Starting from 10mm, right up to 500mm, since action is taking place all around you. I mostly used my Sigma 18-250mm and got my shots with close-ups and wide views using my Nikon 200-500mm and Sigma 10-20mm lenses.
One of the greatest challenges you’ll face when taking pictures at sea is that nothing’s stable. You have to keep as much balance as possible while you try to compose your images and achieve a good focus. The permanent movement of the boat you’re in makes any shot a challenge.
This photo was taken with a 10-20mm Sigma wide angle lens with an aperture of f/4 and captures a moment of calm before the struggle [1]. The nets are nearly all up and the fishermen are waiting for a signal to start moving. In order to keep things sharp, I used a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec. The choice of the 10mm lens was an obvious one for me. I also used a polarizing filter to get a much more dramatic effect on the sky.
The fishermen hit the surface of the water with their sticks to drive the fish towards the net
[2]. This photo was taken with my Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3. This lens is extremely versatile and useful for capturing all
sorts of shots. It’s great being able to switch from wide angle to close-ups quickly, and the varied focal length means I don’t have to switch between two cameras. I set ISO to 800, shutter speed to 1/2500 sec and aperture to f/6.3 to avoid any unnecessary camera shake.
The nets are brought back to the boats full of fish [3]. These shots were the most difficult to capture, because there was so much activity. I used the 200-500mm lens and it’s quite heavy, so holding it on the boat was a challenge, which is another reason why I used the fastest shutter speed I could set at 1/8000 sec. I shot at f/6.3 and had to balance my exposure with ISO800. Even then, I didn’t want to push my luck with the opportunities that I had in front of me. So I engaged Continuous burst mode to increase my chances of getting at least one good picture, if not a few great ones.