Ep 53: The World of Fishing Photography, with Jessica Haydahl Richardson
Jessica Haydahl Richardson is a professional photographer who specializes in the sportfishing industry. After getting invited to shoot a remote island salmon fishing trip, she continued to chase her passion throughout the world of fishing. From targeting bass with gear to fly fishing and offshore, she has made a name for herself in fishing photography. In this episode, she shares her history with fishing and photography, mentions a few of her favorite trips, and offers some tips to make any angler a better fish photographer.
Website: jessicahaydahlphotography.com/
Instagram: @haydahlphoto
Youtube: Link
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Katie
You're listening to the Fish Untamed Podcast, your home for fly fishing the backcountry. This is episode 53 with Jessica Haydahl-Richardson on the world of fishing photography. Just a quick message before we get started. It is that time of year again when I am getting ready to run the annual Rocky Mountain Flyathlon, which for those of you who aren't familiar and didn't listen to episode number one, the flyathlon is a triathlon style race where the events are running, fishing, and beer drinking. Although beer drinking is not a competitive portion of the event, it's more of a weekend long activity. But the whole purpose of the flyathlon is to raise money for native trout conservation here in Colorado. So as part of that, I am trying to raise $250 as my portion of the Flyathlon fundraiser. So if any of you have a couple extra dollars that you would be willing to donate to cutthroat trout conservation, I would greatly appreciate it. The link to get you there is fishuntamed.com slash flyathlon dash fundraiser. Or you can just find it in the menu at the top of the homepage of fishuntamed.com. So again, none of this money goes to me or the podcast. This is just to raise money for conservation of cutthroat trout. So any amount is appreciated. And if you like the show, this would be a great way for you to show your support. What was your start to the outdoors? How did you get introduced to the outdoors and maybe fishing specifically?
Jessica
Well, I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia. So when you grow up in British Columbia, even though I'm from Vancouver, I grew up on the North Shore. North Shore is where the mountains are. So when you come into Vancouver, a lot of people know like Lionsgate Bridge and they see the ski mountains up there. And I'm from that side. I'm from the mountainside. So just spent my whole life outside. Fly fishing didn't happen until I moved to Montana about in 2015. No, 2015 is when I officially moved here, but 2012 is when I first started coming here. But I grew up fishing, boating, camping, hiking, mountain biking, and just played every sport imaginable. And I grew up on the ocean. So everything from salmon fishing conventionally, you know, a lot of conventional downrigger kind I'm photographing for some fishing lodges in northern British Columbia. Sorry, I'm jumping all over the place. So anyways, I just grew up outside. I mean, it's British Columbia. It's like one of the most beautiful provinces in Canada, I like to think.
Katie
I'm sure a lot of people would agree with you.
Jessica
Yeah, it's hard not to be outside when you when you grow up in British Columbia. So yeah, just my dad and and it was basically my dad's a Norwegian and he was an outdoorsman. And, you know, we just we spent our time growing up. We went camping in the summer and stuff. And I think I'm kind of the only sibling, though, in my whole family that's outdoor ish, you know, so it just kind of stuck, I guess, from my dad to me. And then my sisters and my brother were there, you know, they didn't camp or hike as much as I did, but they do appreciate the outdoors when we would go camping and stuff.
Katie
So, yeah, that's something that's come up on quite a few episodes now. The idea of, you know, some people just sticks with because, you know, most people have some sort of connection. Their parents get them into it or or friends or something like that. But often it's not it's often it's just them and not their siblings for whatever reason. You know, some people just it clicks with them and they want to follow up with that. And other people, maybe their parents took them out and they did it while they were kids and then went off to college and kind of took a different direction. So it's interesting that some people, it just, you know, it sticks with them. And that's how they are for the rest of their life.
Jessica
Yeah. And, you know, I'd always go fishing with my dad. I got to travel to Norway quite a few times throughout my life. I've been my dad was the only one who immigrated to to. Well, he came into Ellis Island in New York originally. dad's 88 years old. So it's, generationally for my age, majority of my friends, grandparents are my father's age. And so, you know, he's the only one who came here. And so I've been able to spend a ton of time in Norway throughout my life, fished in Norway and stuff, but just generally just, you know, we'd go lake fishing. It wasn't anything too special. It was just time we spent together. But I actually was involved in like more conventional sports my entire life. So when I say outdoors, yeah, I was outdoors a lot. But a lot of the time, it wasn't like what we would quote unquote say outdoorsy, you know, right. The majority of my time from the age of four till I was 20 something was spent playing conventional sports. I was a high performance athlete in college. So I basically dragged my parents around to a lot of soccer fields, baseball fields, volleyball courts, basketball courts, and hockey arenas. So we spent a lot of time being super active and they would, you know, my parents are the best people in the world as far as I'm concerned. And so, yeah, I didn't get to camp as much as I would want to now. But as a kid, you know, in the summer, we'd have a little chunk of time and we'd go do that. We'd head off to a place called Tofino on Vancouver Island. And we camped there as a family. We had a camper van, like big old steering wheel and a stove inside. And I'm sure my dad and mom would have liked to have been able to spend more time doing that. But, you know, they saw that I had a passion in athletics and they really nurtured that for me. And I appreciate that big time.
Katie
You know, that's interesting for me to hear because that actually mimics my childhood almost to the T. I was in not as many sports as you. I focused mostly on softball, but I also did soccer and basketball at times and did a ton of fishing and picked up hunting in high school as well. But even though I would describe myself as a very outdoorsy kid in that I was almost always doing something outside, the idea of just going camping or going hiking did not really come to me until later in life. My family didn't just go outside for the sake of, we're going to go sleep outside tonight like you know people camp these days it was just where you were I mean in the summertime there where else are you going to be except outside doing something but it was always for the purpose of like I'm going to go fishing or I'm going to go pick up rocks and look under them it wasn't a like an organized family event where we're going to go on a hike together and just walk outside that wasn't that wasn't something that came until much later in my life
Jessica
yeah and I mean it's tough like I don't know if you have do you have siblings
Katie
I do but I didn't live with them growing up.
Jessica
Yeah, I have two sisters and a brother and my brother is quite a bit older, you know, 88 year old father and my mother's in her late 70s. And so I didn't grow up with my brother in the home, but my sisters, my older sisters were in the home with me. And there's just a lot of schedules. There's a lot of schedules, a lot going on. And so trying to like coordinate all that. I don't know how my parents did it, but for me, I my dad was a tugboat captain 47 years. So I grew up on the ocean, basically going with him on the tugs. I have my 15 ton captain's license for eco tours. Like I used to drive like an eco whale watching kind of tour in my 20s. And so I grew up on the ocean and just always being on boats. So if I did do any fishing, it was all ocean fishing. Basically, it was all salmon, halibut, you know, that kind of fishing. I spent my summers a lot of the time boating with friends. And when you grew up in Vancouver, it was right there. And so for me, once I really got dedicated, so my sport in college was ice hockey. I played Division I women's ice hockey at Wayne State University in Detroit. And so I really started to focus in on women's ice hockey in, and it was probably about the 10th grade or 11th grade. I still was playing soccer all the way through. But that's when I really started to focus in on ramping up for a scholarship and trying to get a scholarship. And so there just wasn't as much time. In summers, we would train. You know, then when I got my scholarship, it was, you know, full tilt, four years. I graduated in four years in Michigan, and I basically had no time for anything, which was okay because that's what the goal was. And then when you're a woman in athletics, there's very few paths or avenues for you to move forward once you get to a certain point. So anyways, I got to my third year and realizing, well, there's no millions of dollars that will be thrown your way for being an athlete. And the Olympics never came calling for me. So I had to start thinking about what I wanted to do and truly put time and effort into a better career option. So, yeah, I'm so grateful that I grew up on the ocean and learning to boat. And you kind of have a Norwegian father. You just, you know, you make fish outside on a fire kind of thing. My dad was always just, my dad always had the coolest camping stuff. And I have some of his old camping stuff here. And so, yeah, he's my dad's a pretty, pretty awesome guy. So, yeah, it sounds like a fun upbringing. Yeah, I'm grateful. I had a wonderful upbringing. I can't complain. I have a wonderful family. I love them very much. I wish I could be with them more often, especially with COVID and the border closures. It's made it really difficult. I plan to head out on the 5th if my hand doesn't give me more issues, if I don't have to have surgery. So I'm going to head to Vancouver for a month.
Katie
That's good to hear. I'm headed home in two days for the first time in about a year and a half, too. So I feel like that's one of the plights of, you know, growing up in a you love your family, but they're not located where you want to be. And so you end up somewhere, you know, for you in a different country, for me, it's just across the country, but still it makes it hard to find time to get home and see them.
Jessica
It's, it's, it's definitely tough and challenging. My dad's had some pretty major health stuff happen in the past month and a half. So it's been challenging to know, like, do I just go now and quarantine and go through the whole process and stay there? And I luckily got, I had time to do that last year. I went twice to Canada, did my 14 day quarantine. I can't quarantine with them specifically. But I went through the process and I'm so grateful that I got to do that. I know a lot of people don't have the ability to do that. So I did get to see my family on two occasions last year and I went for a whole month each time. I'm so grateful for that. But now it's been since Christmas and with his health issues, I'm just you just try to figure out what what's the best solution. And luckily yesterday they announced that citizens and residents who are fully vaccinated can enter. So I'm ready. I've got one more photo shoot this weekend and then I'm going to head out for about a month and go spend some time there. I was going mountain bike the whole time, but now with my broken finger, oh man, it kind of messed up my summer.
Katie
Yeah. Well, I wanted to, you touched there on photography. I did want to ask you, were you into photography this whole time, like from a child? I know you said you did some photography back in BC. Is that something you picked up later or is it kind of always been part of your life?
Jessica
In amongst playing sports, I was always very drawn to drawing and being super artistic and I wasn't a very good drawer. So it's not like I was excelling at that. But, you know, I've got all these cameras behind me. I actually started with my mom's 1976 Minolta film camera. I've got like 47 film cameras in my collection and hers is behind me on the shelf. And I picked it up and was just playing around. I'm of the generation, I'm 38, so I'm of the generation where we got to shoot film before digital was like a common thing for the consumer, basically. And it wasn't until I was in the 11th grade, grade 11, that I could then take a course to learn how to work the camera and develop film. And it stuck. There was something about the mechanical process of the camera, seeing your image turn up. Once I learned how to work the camera correctly and I could see the images, I could always see what I was wanting to capture, but I could never translate that to the photo. And it wasn't until I learned in school how to use it correctly. Because my mom's like, look, you need to figure this out because I'm paying for your developing of this film and you're taking terrible photos. I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like the barn was like this and there was clouds. And I would like explain it to her. And my mom's super artistic. She paints. She's a really good writer. she used to take a lot of photos. So, yeah, I just kind of, I guess, following in that footsteps a little bit. And, and so the bug stuck with me. And then when I was in college, I was, you know, finishing off, I was taking photo courses, but I was getting a free education in Michigan. And so I didn't want an art degree where I would learn how to like claymation and pottery. I just thought I should be a bit smarter about a free education if I'm not having to pay for this. And so I ended up getting my marketing advertising degree in business administration. And so, or I guess business administration specializing in marketing advertising, because there's still a creative component, but this is pre-social media, you know, before things really kind of took off in that. I wish I learned that aspect of it when I was in school, but anyways, very long story short, I started selling photographs to athletic directors and coaches in the athletic department and just of Detroit. I would put my rollerblades on and I'd take my camera and I'd rollerblade around downtown Detroit. If you ask me today, it's crazy, but we used to do that, our school was right in the middle of downtown Detroit. And I have a special place in my heart for Detroit. And so, yeah, I just used to take these photos of the skyline and at night, like black and white images of some of the beautiful, iconic buildings and, you know, the Fox Theater and all these beautiful places down there and start selling photos. And it kind it clicked. I was like, wait a minute, I think I want to do this. And so my mom was really excited to get me home after four years of university. And so she found me a photography program back in Vancouver. And so I graduated at Wayne State and I enrolled right away for the next year into a two-year professional photo imaging diploma program in Vancouver. And I basically flew home and started straight into that. So I did seven years of post-secondary education, Plus like a year of college in there before university. And I'm not a doctor. So it was a lot of post-secondary education. But that program was really what I needed. It was a very structured program. It was how to be better at business and photography. Because the thing is, I could already see what I wanted to photograph. I think training your eye, for me at least, has come over time, has come over practice. and photographing a lot and taking that time to become better. It was that program at the school that basically honed my skills on, well, how do you enter the industry? What contacts do you create? How do you price yourself as a photographer, which is like the hardest thing in the world? Like, so I, that's what I took from that program. And the year I graduated from it, I hit the ground running and we're on 15 years of running my own photography business. So.
Katie
That's incredible. And I feel like, I mean, I'm no expert in arts. I've always been more of a science person. But something, I mean, I feel like growing up, I was kind of creative, like I liked to draw and stuff. But like you said, I feel like a lot of people, you know, they have that creativity or that spark or that drive. But there's a difference between taking a really good photograph and being able to actually be a professional photographer who can support yourself, just because, you know, the nature of the beast is you're competing with a lot of other people who, you know, they might know the right person and that gets them in even if you're taking better pictures than they are. So I think, again, I'm no expert, but I feel like you took the smart route of, you know, I can hone this craft on my own, but I need help in the side that is, how can I turn this into an actual business or a livelihood for myself? Because that's the part that I can't really practice on my own. I need someone to help me with that. So I think that's pretty cool that you were able to actually turn that into a thriving business.
Jessica
Yeah, it's definitely, there's a lot of people out there who try to launch into photography and it can be very challenging. You know, I get a lot of younger people reaching out to me nowadays asking, well, how do I shoot for brands? Like, so I specialize in the sports fishing industry, but I haven't always done that. You know, I photographed many things over my career, but since 2012, I've been shooting primarily sports fishing stuff, whether it's editorial pieces, like you can see on my, oops, my wall here or commercial work or, you know, work for social media. It doesn't matter. So, but I get a lot of people asking, well, how do I get in to shoot for that brand? And my thing is, well, like, a, have you put in your time to become a better photographer? Like start shooting the content that you want to be hired for. And that sounds super cliche, but a lot of people just think they can just like apply tomorrow and suddenly they can go shoot for brand. Well, in the end, like getting to where you want to be, you have to put in your time. And I know we live in an age of like super quick fix and people aren't patient, but I'm sorry, like if you go out there and I know a lot of people message me and they're like guides who have a nice camera who photograph, which is fine. But why don't you call yourself a professional photographer? Go out there and get some work. Whether that's a wedding, whether that's shooting real estate, whether that's shooting portraits, baby portraits, I mean, go out there and start working as a professional photographer because it's only going to make you better in, you know, specializing in what you really want to do. You know, it's tough because a lot of the time they don't want that. They want this easy solution. They just think it's, oh, well, I just have to meet this person, this person, this person. But there's a lot to it. There is. And you really do need to work at it. I think weddings are one of the best things a photographer could ever shoot because you have to be a food photographer. You have to be a portrait photographer, a landscape photographer, a macro photographer, you name it, like photojournalistic photographer all in one day. So even if you hate them, go shoot a couple a year. That will just make you such a better photographer that when you get asked to go and shoot. So I shoot, I thought about it this year. I'm like, man, I've been shooting a lot of rods and reels this year. It's just pretty But with that, I'm not just delivering pictures of rods and reels. I'm delivering photojournalistic picture, macro photos. I'm delivering lifestyle photos. You know, you're trying to capture enough images in your photo shoot for your brands to deliver them a really nice finished product. And how did I learn to do that was just practicing and shooting this stuff like weddings and stuff that I didn't necessarily love. It's good money. If you want to make good money in the photography industry, go be a wedding photographer, honestly. Well, I'm sure the work is available too.
Katie
I feel like there's some industries where it's really hard to even get a start unless you are working for some of the big names. But I feel like for photography, I'm sure it's the case that there's probably a lot of people who don't want to spend a lot on their wedding and they would be happy to hire someone who is like, hey, I'm kind of new, but here's some of my photos they're pretty good. And I'm sure there are people out there who are like, that's all we need. We just need someone who can take good photos. I don't need, you know, the best photographer with the biggest name who's known by millions of people. I just need someone who can capture my day and make it special. And if you're brand new, I feel like as long as you can prove that you can get the good photos, no one's going to care that you're relatively unknown or relatively new as long as you can show that you're skilled enough for it.
Jessica
Totally. The amount of times I've had like brides or bridesmaids or, you know, people just tell me like, oh, you know, my friend or they hired their uncle Bob who has a camera. And I'm like, well, how did the photos turn out? And they're like, terrible. And I'm like, there you go. I don't hire like Dan from down the street to do my taxes if he is a landscape guy. Like it just doesn't make sense. And there is value in in working to like there's value in work ethic and practicing and you know putting in the time there's so much value in time and I think that is so overlooked especially in the outdoor industry as photographers and social media and all of that like a lot of the images I take are here today gone tomorrow a lot of the stuff I shoot isn't just for branding for brochures for packaging in the store some in-store display stuff, some short videos that I put together for in-store display stuff. It's not just that. A lot of the stuff that I shoot, thousands of images that I shoot will show up on social media and they'll be here today and they'll be gone tomorrow. That is totally different. That is totally different from the way I was originally trained. It is a whole new market and a whole new generation. So companies need content, but companies need to get value out of the photo shoots they book. So I tried to shoot as much content as I can on a shoot for them that will allow them to have enough content across the board. Whether that's the brochure you open up of their products to walmart.com. You know, they have so many deliverables of images that they need. And the outdoor space is really not that big. And it's very saturated with photographers. So or people who want to be photographers or people who are giving images away for free. So there's just you know, it's just something to keep in mind that if you want to stand out and you want to be better, put in the time beforehand and you will. And shoot, shoot what you want to be hired for. A lot of people are like, oh, how do I get into the fly fishing photography industry? I'm like, well, why would you want to do that? It's like this big. Why don't you go and shoot some conventional tackle stuff where it's this big? Right. And then shoot fly fishing on the side and then try to like do smaller jobs of fly fishing and then work your way like through that. I mean, it's just, I don't know. I just get frustrated when I get a lot of emails and people just want shortcuts. And I hate to tell people there's just no shortcuts. There really isn't.
Katie
Yeah. And I mean, like you said, I feel like it's got to be, you know, it's fun shooting. For example, if you want to be in the fly fishing realm specifically, it's fun shooting a fly rod and reel. But at the end of the day, shooting a conventional rod and reel will still give you the same skills that you need and still be able to prove that you can take a good photo. It's just not the exact same subject material in the photo itself. And, yeah, I feel like people maybe need to be a little bit more flexible. This is not just for photography, but just in general, there's a lot of people who want to get in the quote unquote industry. And it's, you know, how can I how can I be in it right now instead of, you know, maybe working your way into it a little bit, making some connections elsewhere who can then connect you to the people you'll eventually need to be connected to. So yeah, I think that's not something that's specific to photography. I think that's just kind of how it is, especially with social media these days. Everyone has access to everybody. I mean, I feel like back in the day, you wouldn't really, I mean, you might know who the name of like an editor of a magazine, but you didn't necessarily have the ability to open up an app and direct message them. And that's something that everyone can do these days is just message whoever they want or comment on whoever they want. And they've got like a mainline right to them.
Jessica
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is I love contributing editorial pieces to magazines. If I didn't need to make an income and I just could do it as a hobby, I would just be submitting to editorial magazines nonstop. I do submit a lot. This year, actually, I haven't submitted as much as I usually do. Usually I'm every couple of days I'm shooting images out to people or on call, like on lists where they send you their call outs of what they're looking for. For me, the fact that someone can hold a magazine in their hand and I can have thousands of people looking at one of my images and they're holding it in their hand. That's that is like that makes me happy in photography. That is what is seeing it in print. That was my goal when I used to shoot. When I started, I would look at magazines. I'm like, this would be so cool to get on this cover. And I still have my list of like, man, if I ever got a shot in National Geographic, you know, I still have my like checklist of some things that would be like really big mile markers in my life. But, you know, I don't really shoot anything that would be National Geographic specific at this point in my life. But, you know, so I just I just think that being open to photographing many, many things will just make you better in general. And so like for me, in 2011, no way, 2008, I was shooting the NHL. I left school and, I got a practicum job being assistant photographer for the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL. That was like my dream, right? I was a hockey player. I follow hockey a lot, not so much now living in Montana. Cause they're like, they never put it on TV here. Um, but I, I got to shoot and then I got hired by the Canucks to be a second shooter. And a lot of NHL players love to fish. It's funny enough, especially in British Columbia, a lot of these guys like to salmon fish and they were having a charity event up in Northern British Columbia off the coast. There's an Island called Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte, Queen Charlotte Islands, but now known as Haida Gwaii after the Haida people that live there. And it's just south of Alaska. Like you can see Alaska from it. There's nothing else out there other than Alaska and Japan. And it's some of the best salmon fishing in the world. And people from all over the world come to these little lodges out there to fish, salmon fish, and you fly in via helicopter and you're out there in your boat and whales and humpback whales, killer whales, bald eagles. I mean, sea lions. It is one of the best places for your soul. It's just like the coolest place. And so 2008, I believe, I got sent north. I was asked, I'm like, the head photographer is like, hey, Jess, do you want to go photograph up in Haida Gwaii? I need to capture this fishing derby for these NHL players. And I'm like, yep, I will be there. Because I always knew I'd have the ability to shoot kind of bald eagle wildlife outdoor kind of imagery. I just didn't have a chance to do it. And this was my chance. And so I went up there in 2008 and photographed and I drove my own boat around because I knew how to boat my whole life. So they're like, you know how to drive a boat? And I'm like, yeah. So they just put me in like a little 19 foot Boston whaler and headed out there and photographed guys with their salmons. A lot of it was just like souvenir hold up shots, release shots, just hooked on to salmon. It's very conventional downrigger type of salmon fishing. and trolling. And so I photographed this and it stuck and it ended up me creating a relationship with their fishing lodge. And from 2008 until last year would be the first main year I couldn't go photograph for them because of COVID. So that's a long relationship I've had with this company. They're called West Coast Fishing Club. They've got a beautiful lodge. It's not like we're not talking about like meat and potatoes. We're talking about like high-end dining, fancy lodge. But, you know, I learned how to be out in all different types of elements and photograph everything from the whales to the food, to the people. And again, that all ties in with like photographing weddings and stuff. You just learn how to be a really well-rounded photographer. And eventually they moved, that company moved south. They opened a fishing lodge in Panama. for marlin fishing. And next thing you know, I find myself on an airplane flying south to, to witness marlin in the first place. I had never seen one in my life. The very first marlin I ever saw, I photographed some of the best images I think I've ever taken of a marlin before. And it just, it just opened the doors to an industry that I had no idea or thought that I would ever be a part of. But it wasn't until about 2012 where I stopped. I started to, you know, pull out some of the other things I used to shoot. So the family portraits, the corporate headshots, real estate was a really big one for me in Vancouver. So I started like kind of weaning that stuff out. And then eventually I was down in Panama a lot. And then in 2015, when I finally moved to the United States and immigrated here, I could then start working on the commercial side of stuff. So 2015 is when I could start working with brands in the United States legally. So I couldn't shoot here. I couldn't shoot here before. You can't work here if you're not a green card holder or on a work visa. So yeah. So I never thought my path would be this much fishing or watching people fish all day long. That's all. That's what I get to do. I photograph and I watch you fish. Sounds like a pretty good gig. Yeah. I mean, it's funny because a lot of people are like, you want to pick up the rod and just take a cast? And every once in a while, you know, I enjoy throwing a bait caster, not so much a spinning rod, but, and then of course, fly fishing. I love fly fishing and I, you know, I love to take a couple of casts, but a lot of the time I just say no, cause it's like easier to not pick it up. Cause as soon as you pick it up, you don't want to put it back down. Um, so I really don't get to fish very much, anymore. I just don't fish very much. Um, most of the time I'm photographing everybody fish. And then in my spare time, you know, I have other hobbies. I know a couple of my friends get frustrated. They're like, when you get home from your trip, like let's hit the river. And I'm like, I just spent three days photographing someone bass fishing or fly fishing for redfish or offshore fishing. I don't want to go fishing. I want to go and mountain bike or road bike or go for a hike or just sit at my house. I'm super homebody for someone who travels continually one or two main trips a month.
Katie
Yeah, that's Interesting. I feel like a lot of people who really want to become like a fly fishing photographer are really into fishing. And they're like, how can I add to this or maybe try to make a living somehow connected to my passion for this? And it's interesting to hear your perspective as someone who kind of got in from the other direction, you know, from the photography side who ended up in fishing instead of the other way around. And it's like, you know, I'm around fishing all the time. I need to do something else with my time.
Jessica
Well, definitely. And, you know, I just I love fishing my local river here, which is the Bitterroot. I'm just south of Missoula and Montana. But this time of year, it's really packed. It's really busy, which is great for my guide friends. It's great for the businesses here. That's wonderful. But it's not really my time to fish. My time to fish is truly the wintertime. I have a winter crew that I fish with. I love to swing flies for trout and you know what's funny is because I didn't start fly fishing until I moved to Montana I never really got to explore British Columbia very much fly fishing so those are like my goals I'd rather actually be able to go and fly fish in BC and really see what my province has to offer I learned how to spay cast in British Columbia but I learned how to spay cast So then I could trout spay cast here in Montana. That was my whole goal thinking. I'm like, okay, well, I booked a day to go learn at least one or two casts that I could then practice. And then translate to a trout spay rod when I got back to the Bitterroot. Which is really fun in the wintertime. You don't have to wade out far. And if you're alone, then you don't have to be solo kind of wading really far out there. Which freaks me out a bit. I'm not a good swimmer.
Katie
Especially not in waders that are filled up with water and not good.
Jessica
Not at all. Not at all. So, you know, it's just different. I love fly fishing. I think I just have more access now at this point to conventional tackle fishing. And 90%, 95% of my work is commercial conventional fishing. Whether it's bass fishing, walleye fishing, I get sent to shoot offshore stuff. I get sent to Louisiana a lot, Florida, and then every rural state in America I've been to. And it's really funny because I'll go to like Missouri or I'm supposed to, well, I'm going to Alabama, Tennessee, Alabama next, or on Sunday, this coming Sunday, Wisconsin, Minnesota. I mean, you name it. I'm kind of, well, Minnesota is not rural, but you know what I mean? Like I'm just kind of all over. And I actually had a shoot on Saturday last week or a week ago. I can't remember. And it was in Bozeman. And that was my first shoot in Montana in forever. That isn't just stock photography. That's not just shooting some stuff for a magazine, like an actual commercial shoot, which I thought was hilarious because I was like, why don't we do more shoots in Montana? That was great. That's right. Close to home. I could drive there and back in a day. And so that doesn't happen often. I live in airports and I have a lot of Delta air miles, basically.
Katie
Oh, sure. But do you have a preference? Like if, you know, all things aside in terms of the hassle of the travel and the pay and all that, what is your favorite thing to photograph in the fishing world? Like do you hear a trip needs you and you're just stoked because you're like, oh, I love this species or I love the environment that this fish lives in or I love this style of fishing. Like is there everything equal? What's your preferred style of fishing and species to photograph?
Jessica
Well, man, I'm not species specific. I'm okay with whatever. you know I've never it's more for me the context of the shoot am I going on a commercial shoot that is product or am I going on a photojournalistic shoot that allows me to photograph the everything from the lifestyle to the fish to the campsite to the floating to the plane like the float plane in to the product as well like that for me is like my kind of shoot I don't get those as often. So I get really excited when I do get a challenge like that. I just did a shoot with my friend Monique Newman down at Journey South Outfitters in Venice, Louisiana. Her and her husband run this incredible little outfitters down there. They do a lot of mostly offshore conventional fishing for marlin, swordfish, tunas, big. And then they do inshore conventional redfish. And then they do do fly fishing as well. It's just not as busy as conventional stuff. But I was just down there for 11 days. I go there every year to shoot with my friend Mo. She's one of my closest friends in the fishing industry here. And we line up brands. I go down and I'll shoot for multiple brands there. And so we did a shoot for Yeti and it was just a day in the life of Mo. And that is like my kind of stuff. So I get to photograph her when she lifts weights at 4 a.m. in the morning to her prepping her boat, to her heading out there, throwing her cast net, filleting her fish, cooking her dinner. That to me is is like the best kind of a project I could receive because I think it does suit my skill set better. I'm a very photojournalistic type of photographer, and I love to tell a story through a series of images. It's great to be able to capture one amazing, you know, breathtaking image. But I try to capture as many strong series of images together in order to try to create a story through the images that way. I went on a trip last year for Grey's Fly Fishing and Outdoor Life magazine. And unfortunately, Outdoor Life magazine stopped printing physically. So they just had their first digital issue come out. And the story, Christine Peterson, awesome writer and outdoors woman, she wrote the story behind it. But we did a five-day float in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, floating through Class 4 Rapids, grizzly bears. No one brought bear spray. all wearing life jackets on 30 year old rafts. And I was hired by the product part of the company and then the editorial side. That to me is like the best sauce in the world. I got to photograph grayling, which was just like so cool. You know, just beautiful grayling. Got to be in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, photograph grizzly bears harvesting salmon out of the river. Everything and the storms and the rainbows that came out. Denali was in the background through the drone up there. Denali's in the background. I mean, like that is like that is what I live for. I just unfortunately, you don't see a lot of those images. I don't get to ever show the general public a lot of what I shoot. It all goes to the brands. And then if they release it, then you get to see it. Or if a magazine releases it, you get to see it. So I sit on these banks and banks of images and really don't get to show a lot of people sometimes. And it's just is what it is. But I do send the gallery around to friends. I'm like, guys, check this trip out. This was awesome. And so, yeah, so I'm not species specific and I'm not, I love to shoot fly fishing just because I think it's a very artful looking kind of, sport. I think just the way the line curls and the angles you can shoot it. And some of the places you go to with it are just so different than conventional, but I'm not, I'm not specific. I, I have no problem with photographing conventional, bass fishing or, even, you know, photographing fly for bass. I mean, bass fishing on fly rod is fun as heck. Uh, I tell a lot of the bass guys that I'm like, oh, I like to fish for the mom fly. And they're like, why would you do that? I'm like, well, I don't know. Fun. Um, yeah. And so, you know, I was grateful I got to go to Christmas Island a couple of years ago and document that whole trip and make a short film on that, which is in the F3T right now, touring around the U S so finally where they're showing some live showing. So I'm super excited about that. And that was a huge honor to have a film of all females, all female casts. So the first time that we've had a film that's just is all women, you know, be on display for everybody to see. So that, and that was a project where I got to shoot a film. I got to also photograph for a couple of magazine articles and, you know, tell a story that way. And that was just like, that is like, oh man, I don't even know. That's like my home run. That's my, my hat trick goal. If you're a hockey player, that's like, you know, that is the top echelon for me in terms of creativity and just love of the outdoors. And then being able to watch people who are really good at their own craft fish for me kind of thing. It's kind of funny because I know these like guys and girls are so good at what they do a lot of the time that it's just I can sit back and worry about being a photographer because I know they've got me, you know, you know, and it's obviously fishing. So it's not always great, but they're still going to be better than any other person I could ever be with because they're so good at what they do.
Katie
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I could see I could see that being, you know, if I were into photography, I could see that being what I would be interested in too is not necessarily what it is I'm taking a picture of, but the story it's telling or the experience that I'm having while I'm taking these photos and being able to come out of it and being like, this photo is the perfect representation of the experience I had. And it's, you know, it's like a window into that world. I could see that being a little bit more meaningful than just saying this photograph is technically very good. know, it's either proportions are right and people are located in the right spot in the photo and the lighting's great. But, you know, maybe I just didn't really feel that connected to the moment. So I could definitely see that being the preferred style.
Jessica
Yeah. And I'm not a technical photographer. I'm a technical like photo geek in terms of loving gear. I'm a gearhead when it comes to that. But in terms of being a technical photographer, I learned how to be a technical photographer. But then it's like I finally got out of photo school and I was like, screw that. I don't want to do that. Like, I shoot on angles. I shoot into the sun as much as possible. I love flares. I love trying to capture super shallow depth of field. I just shoot the way that I'm just pretty fluid when I shoot. I'm just kind of moving, moving, moving, zooming in, zooming out, recropping. And there is no good technical aspect of my photography anymore. It went all out the door. And so I don't ever, when I do like lectures online or Zoom lectures for people, I never think that being technically sound is important in photography at this day and age. It is not. We have digital. And so, you know, with digital photography, you can see your results right there. So you don't need to be this technically sound, perfect photographer to make that perfect negative. You can just go out and be super creative and you can see your results right in front of you. So, you know, I'm always telling people like, just go practice. That's the most technical you need to be. If you just practice. So I call it the fiddle factor on your camera. If you can eliminate the fiddle factor, which is what kills so many great photos, is your eye like if I catch a fish every once in a while, I want a photo of my fish. So I'll get, you know, down in one knee in the in the river and I go to lift my fish out of that net for a dripping fish shot. And I have a friend who will grab my camera and take a photo and she's fiddling with it. And next thing you know, the background is sharp and I'm blurry the whole time. Like that happens to me all the time. And I'm like, damn it, just take one with your iPhone because at least it will find my face and focus on me. And so for me, like I always just say to people, I'm like, I just have learned my cameras, my settings without thinking. I just know where my dials are. And again, you can see your image right there on the screen. There is no excuse not to be able to at least make a decent image these days. So if you just go out and practice, take your camera, walk down your driveway and eliminate that fiddle factor, you're going to a like kind of keep fish healthier because you're not going to have to be, you know, tell your friend, like, hold on a minute. I just need to adjust my exposure. Meanwhile, they've got this fish that they're either holding, which they shouldn't be. It should always be in the net or or you're offshore and you're you're photographing a marlin. Well, I'm sorry, the marlin's not going to wait for you. So if you can practice and eliminate that fiddle factor, I really think you can just automatically become a better photographer in that regard.
Katie
That's a kind of a great transition to the second part of what I wanted to ask you about, which is, you know, for the average person who's not trying to pursue a career in photography, doesn't even necessarily want to get, quote unquote, into photography, but they just want to make their photos of their fish look good. You know, something that they're proud to show, show people. And it's not, you know, they're not blurry. The fish isn't blurry. You know, everything's in the photo the way it should be. Like, what are some, I guess, maybe divided into two sections here, the actual gear side and the settings and stuff. And also just, you know, lighting angles, how to set up a good photo, like what makes a good photo versus a kind of a crappy photo. So you can take that in whatever order you want. But what are some tips to turn it from a, I have evidence that I caught this fish to an actual, like something I'm proud to show my family when I get home.
Jessica
Totally. And I mean, I don't think that anything, I'm not one to judge whether your personal photo you've taken of your fish from your amazing trip is good or crappy, you know, in that regard. Like sometimes it's more just about documenting to show the people you love and care about in your life that this is really cool and I did this kind of thing. So in terms of like technical gear, you know, you don't need to go out and spend a ton of money on on on cameras. It all depends on what you want to do. If you're looking at advancing your images to a different level, creating more depth of field in your images where your subjects and, you know, focus in the backgrounds blurred out. if that's what you're looking for, then investing in photography equipment, you know, whether that's a mirrorless camera or whether that's a DSLR is definitely going to help you on that path to creating those kind of looking images. But if you only have your iPhone, which sorry, that's my dog against. If you only have your iPhone, like I've got the 12 Pro Max or something, it's a cool phone. The wide angle lens on this is so cool. It is just like, oh, really great lens. I use this wide angle lens a ton and play with it. And you get some pretty cool results. So first things first, you do not need to go and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on your cameras. You just need to figure out what you want out of it. Well, if you just have your iPhone and you got one of these cool phones with the wide angle lens, this is a great tool. So how can you make this phone better? Go in and double check you're on the best settings possible. How do you make your GoPro footage better or your camera settings better? Is go in and first of all, make sure you're shooting at a high resolution JPEG. If you know how to handle raw photos, that's great. But I really think you just need to start with the best you've got. So if the best you got is an iPhone, make sure you can go into your settings and you can double check to make sure that your settings are set at the highest they can be, whether that's for your video or that's for your still images. So that's what I always say. I think technically, if you're wanting to kind of up your game, you already know how to take photos. You've been taking photos for a little while and you want to create some different looking imagery. That's where, you know, your mirrorless or DSLRs can come into play and you can change lenses. And when you get to change lenses, the game changes basically. You know, you can isolate your better. You can, you know, you can drop your, you know, you have more depth of field where you can have your subject in focus and your background blurred out. There's just, you can become even more creative basically. So start with what you have and then decide if it's for you. And if you want to continue and take better photos, then look at investing in some nicer gear, like an actual mirrorless camera. I would say mirrorless these days rather than DSLR. I just think that that is the better route at this point. If that's the way the companies are headed and that's what they're manufacturing, then that's the better path to take. In terms of taking better photos, you know, I think there's a couple of things. Let's just keep it to fly fishing because that's just probably more the audience. First things first is always keep the fish's health in mind. So for me, if I'm asking for someone to hold their fish for me or have a photo taken of their fish or my fish to be taken a photo of, the fish's responsibility as far as I'm concerned is in the photographer's hands. If I'm the one asking for it, I need to make sure the well-being of that fish is the best it can be. Obviously, not lifting a fish out of the water is the best thing for a fish, but sometimes the brands I work for in the magazines I work for, that's not acceptable. I have to take a photo of a fish out of the water. So how do I do it in the best way possible to mitigate the most amount of risk for the fish and also make it look really nice? So I always say, like, if you are floating the river, if you're floating the river and you catch a nice fish, you get it in the net in the water and you got it in the net, ask your guide if they can row to the side of the bank and drop the anchor. If it's safe for you to get out, I always think the better photos are way out of the boat. Why take photos in the boat? I mean, unless you're physically not able to get out of the boat, it makes sense. But if you physically can get out of the boat, get out of the boat. It just looks so much better and more natural and more like just scenic. And so I always ask if we catch a nice fish, a nice brown trout on the Bitterroot here, I'll just say, can we shoot, can we photograph this one? And my guide knows it will row right over to the side. My guides are like, oh, my friends, my best friends here. And so they'll be like, yeah, Jess, okay. And we'll row over, drop the anchor. I get out of the boat, the angler gets out of the boat. I always say like, you know, put one knee down, kneel down in the water. Sometimes in the winter it's really cold. And I have a lot of friends who sacrifice their fingers for me to take photos. And I really appreciate it. Keep that fish in the net the entire time. You know, I'm actually going to be writing, I'm actually writing an article for Fly Fishing Magazine about this right now, just about tips and tricks to up your photography game, you know, for fly fishing. And so be the director of the photo. You know, I always say like, tell your angler what you want them to do with the fish. That way the fish doesn't have, you know, two minutes being held out of the water while you're trying to figure out which angle is better. You know, know the image in your head, in your mind ahead of time. And that's easy to do. Jump on Instagram, go check out some photos you like, screenshot them, save them in a folder, keep them on your phone. You know, I really think some pre-planning before you go out there, if you're really wanting to get better photos, you just need to take the time to be like five minutes before you go fishing, jump on Instagram. I like this shot. I like this one. Today, I'm going to keep that in my mind. If we catch a nice fish, let's try to recreate that. There's nothing wrong with that. So, you basically what it comes down to. You can do that with your iPhone. But I've done some lectures where I've got some video footage of me like directing my subject. And you'll just notice that I'm just clicking away, clicking away as I'm talking to my angler. I said, okay, like before we lift this fish out, what we're going to do, you're going to put your hands underneath the belly of the fish. You're going to get it on a 45. And when I say lift it out, lift it out and then back in. And then I said, you know, and that's how we do it quick so we can get that fish back on its way. And that's the best way I've found if you need to take the fish out of the water. If you don't want to take your fish out of the water, which is the healthiest thing for them, you know, investing in like a GoPro or a case for your phone or this phone's waterproof, apparently. I won't test it. I'm the same way. I'm like, I don't know. Yeah, I know. I'm like, the lady at the store the other day, she's like, yeah, it's waterproof. I'm like, really? what about this, this hole here? Um, and so it's just like, you know, experiment, you can get an underwater housing for your mirrorless camera or your, your, your DSLR. I, I, I'm an ambassador for a brand called OutTex. Um, it's not as expensive as an AquaTech housing. It's, half the price, but it can fit onto so many different types of products. And so, you know, I do think that it's easy to take better photos today because of the equipment we have available. And the only excuse you have to not take better photos is you just didn't put in the time or you don't want to just do a little bit of research or you don't want to just go on YouTube for a minute and look up a video on how to set something on your phone or your camera. And you just need to practice a little bit. Practice being a better director. Sometimes I'm not a great director. Sometimes on a photo shoot, I'm just like my my my creativity after nine hours of shooting has just shut off. And I'm like, OK, just do something with that fish now. You can get to a point where you've just drained yourself. And so I think just like trying to stay creative is hard sometimes by yourself. So use the things that we have in front of us. Use social media, use Facebook, go online and just check out some cool pictures, flip through a magazine, be like, that is a cool photo. I want to try to redo that. That is just a great way to like start baseline. And then from there, you know, generally creative juices start flowing and you start getting ideas of different things you can do here and there. So, I mean, that's kind of a, not a one to five, here's some tips to help you out, but it just kind of a thought process that, help navigate maybe someone to taking better photos. And like I said, I'm writing an article for, I think fall issue of Fly Fusion Magazine that will talk about this and hopefully have some better descriptions of examples on images to like help the reader see specifically what I'm talking about when I, when I mentioned one of these things. So yeah, I mean, but the main thing is just get out there and start asking for photos. I, you know, a lot of the time people don't want to ask their friend, like they catch a nice fish and they're like, just turn and hold it up. And they're in the boat and we've all dropped a fish in the boat, which, you know, poor fish. Sometimes you just, you know I've led the trip with saying okay guys I'm going to be a bit annoying here can we pull over for this fish as well but you know at the end of the day everybody loves a cool photo of their fish or themselves or be able to show pictures you know I send photos daily to my family's text group to my mom to show my dad of these really cool things I get to do or see or photograph and for me that means more than just Instagram and social media posting you know for me to take cool photos it's not always about social media sometimes it's just I want to show people in my life what I get to do because it's pretty cool
Katie
yeah like I said I'm not at all a photographer I feel like when I see a good photo I can say like hey that's good but I don't necessarily know what I'm doing in terms of settings and things but there's there's been some things that I've noticed and like you said you kind of have to direct people sometimes even for me, it's not always as the person taking the photo. It's often as like, I've got a fish and I'm noticing that the person is, you know, looking right into the sun or is standing way above me as I kneel in the water. And it's like, look, look at what you're seeing on your screen and think, is this like, is this the best way it could look? And think, how could you adjust it to be what you want it to be? And it might be as simple as turn to face a different way with the sun or maybe you just face a different way like a different angle compared to the camera or get down at a different angle and look up at it or straight on or something instead of down at it and that's something that's kind of hard to remember I think in the moment when you know like you said you're trying to get the fish that photographed as fast as possible before you put it back in the water and it feels really hectic in the moment so I think a little bit of preparation and just kind of you know even if you just hold your phone up and look at what it would look like when the fish is held up you can probably get a pretty good idea of of like what position you want to be in and then lift the fish up to get that photo instead of trying one and saying, oh, it doesn't look really good. Let's try again. The fish is getting lifted up, you know, four or five times for it.
Jessica
I think just a little preparation can can go a long way. Totally. And that's when it comes down to practice and just knowing like, you know, people when I do a Zoom lecture for like teaching photography and I tell the ladies that they can just like ladies or guys or whatever that they can swipe to, they can just swipe over on their phone in the camera. Like anybody's phone that you don't even have the passcode for you just literally what swipe to the left and you access the camera. You know how many people don't know that? And I'm like, what do you mean you don't know that? Because there's nothing worse than handing someone your phone on the river and say, Hey, can you snap a picture of this fish for me? Or can you snap a picture of me? They're like, yeah, what's your password? I'm like, you don't need my password. You just, just swipe to the left and there's the camera it just opens up and they're like what that's funny I never have encountered that yeah like and or encountered people asking about that yeah yeah that's what I mean or yeah no I've encountered it a ton I don't know if it's just the age range which I hang out with maybe we can't figure anything out I mean I have to ask my 16 year old niece about like acronyms now because I don't know it and I like I took her my iPhone in Texas I was down in Texas in April I took her my iPhone I was like I don't know how to Tiktok can you show me how to actually make tiktoks I look at TikTok, but like, I don't know, I might want to make a TikTok. And she's like, okay. And I'm like, I don't know how to TikTok.
Katie
Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't know it. I mean, I'm not on TikTok, but if, if someone asked me to make one, I wouldn't know what to do.
Jessica
Yeah. Don't go on it. It wastes a lot of time, unless you sit in airports a lot like I do. If you sit in airports a lot, then TikTok's a great, great time to, to, to fill up your time in the airport. But otherwise than that, don't, don't go on it. Cause I get like a notification that says, maybe you need to take a rest. It like pops up on the screen. Like maybe give your eyes a rest. That means you've been on TikTok too long, TikTok-ing. And so, yeah, I just find it funny that that it's just there's just little things that you can practice or try or just think about ahead of time. And I do really think that you can get better photos that way, basically, just to start with. And then from there, you can start getting more creative. And for some people, being creative comes really naturally. I think for myself, I have a very artistic. I see things. I don't have to think about it and I see it and I know what I want and I know how to capture it. But I know for a lot of people, they don't necessarily see that. They don't necessarily see that their camera is tilted and that the horizon isn't straight. They just don't see it. So you don't always have to be born with this incredible eye to be a great photographer. you can practice and get better. Maybe you're not going to be an Ansel Adams, but you can still improve by practicing. Photography is not like a, you know, you don't need to be Albert Einstein to figure out photography. Just a lot of practice. I don't want to disregard my job as a professional photographer, but again, like that is where it all comes into play. All your practice and your time spent and your context made and your experience is what I value most about what I offer a client. But I do think that even if you're not the best photographer, if you start practicing and working at training your eye, you can become a better photographer easily, easily. And get some apps on your phone where you can edit the photos a little bit, play around with it. It's just we have so much access to so many creative outlets. And, you know, it just takes a little bit of time just to play with them and figure out what could look cool and what you can do in the sensor on all your cameras and your iPhone and everything. The sensor can do more than what you just see when you take that photo. That's the thing. When people say, oh, I don't really like to Photoshop my images. Well, for me, you know, yeah, I post process my images, you know, quite a bit, maybe heavier than some people like. But the thing is, I'm not post-processing to the point where it's not real. I am using the information that I'm gathering on my sensor and I'm bringing it to life. That's the difference. I'm bringing it to life.
Katie
That's something I've definitely noticed before with like you take a photo and you're like, the sky was bluer than that. The trees were greener than that. Like I, it doesn't look like what you saw. Or the biggest one for me is the mountains were bigger. And here in the photo, the mountains are this tiny little thing on the horizon. But you know, when I saw them, they were huge. And it's, it's obviously that's not something you really Photoshop is, you know, the size of the mountains, but for like colors and things like that, it doesn't always show up as, as vividly as it was in real life. So I feel like post-processing almost brings it back to what it was, not making it something it wasn't.
Jessica
Yeah. And I mean, it, it, it, a lot of people I talk to nowadays, they have these really high megapixel cameras and they say, well, I can crop after I can just punch in and I can crop. And I said, that's great. If that's your method, that's awesome. But for me, like I was trained to photograph, to make the best image I can when I see it crop within camera, the best I can. I don't have to crop my photos a lot when I go through my edits because I am continually self cropping when I'm shooting, whether it's moving my feet closer to my subject or zooming my zoom lens in closer to my subject or further out. And so, so I do think that like, so your eye, I think is like a 44. I mean, I might be wrong. I can't remember exactly. 44 millimeters is like what your eye sees or something. 42. I don't know. Someone will probably know. I can't remember. But so that's why when you have your iPhone in your hand, what you see and the depth of field in which your eye can capture, which is insane and nothing can live up to how good your eye is truly, you know, that is why your phone photo doesn't look like what you're what you see out of your eye. So that is why you have to use different lenses to try to mimic that way that your eye for what your eye can see. But yeah, the information on these sensors are pretty incredible. My iPhone, the amount of info I can pull out of the shadows, I can bring back in the highlights. You can bring the clouds back in. You can pull. So that's why if I take my iPhone and I line my subject up and the sun is behind them, they're holding that fish up. I can shoot directly into that light because I know in post-processing software in the iPhone, it's only so good. But in my mirrorless cameras, I can pull those shadows out and I can bring those highlights back down. And all I'm doing is mimicking what you would do in the dark room with film and what you can get out of that film negative. I'm doing that with a sensor of a camera and what those cameras can truly do for you is pretty incredible. I mean, we have insane technology right now at our fingertips and it's just takes time and practice and a whole bunch of YouTube university. There you go. That's all you need.
Katie
Well, just to finish up, do you just want to share where people can find you if they want to look at your photography or find you on social media or reach out?
Jessica
Yeah. So I basically only get to update Instagram. I have not updated my website for a long time. Maybe every once in a while, update a blog post. So my name is Jessica Haydahl. Richardson's my married name, but I go by Haydahl Photo. It's H-A-Y-D-A-H-L Photo. it's Norwegian spelling of doll at the end. So yeah, Instagram is the most up to date for stories, reels, photos. Please, if you have time and you haven't checked out the F3T and you can check online where they're touring, please take the time to go check out the insane films that are on this year. And if you have a chance, check out our film because that's just it's called Drop the Pacific. It's about a group of women of all ages. I think, gosh, it's been a while since I've promoted it. I think 70 years old was the oldest. And then I at the time was 36 years old. And so I was the youngest at the time. And it's just it's been so cool to be a part of that tour to to tour around with some of these beautiful films and to be a part of that. So if you get a chance, You can check out their website. I know they have been promoting the F3T now for actual live viewings. There's going to be two in Missoula, I believe. I think there's some in Colorado. But anyway, so that's like the most up to date. If you're on walmart.com, look for bass photos.
Katie
I might have to go to that website after this just to look.
Jessica
Yeah. In Cabela's, there's photos, you know, that I've shot that are in there or something. But I'm always trying to, I'm always in magazines and stuff, writing articles. I've just kind of started into the editorial side of things. And but yeah, I'm out there. People can always shoot me a message. Just don't send me a message saying, hey, what camera should I buy? Because I most likely won't respond. But if you message me and say, hey, Jess, this is what I like to photograph. I'm kind of interested in this camera, this camera, this camera. Do you have any thoughts? Then I can give you my opinion or my idea. But a lot of the time when people just send me a message, say, what camera should I buy? Well, I don't know what camera you should buy. Plus, then it takes me to go online to do the research to figure out what camera you should buy. Like you could go online and figure it out.
Katie
It's like, what fly rod should I buy? And it's like, well, what species? Where do you live? How often do you go? all these things that, you know, make a difference.
Jessica
Totally. And I'm always about helping out people. I answer as many questions as I can on my Instagram messenger, about photography related stuff. It's just, if you can be very specific about what you're thinking you want to do or what you're looking for and what camera brands you've already looked up, then it's easier for me to be like, okay, well, I know this camera. I don't know this one. And I know this model. And out of these three, this one, you know, I can do that kind of stuff. But if you're asking me about the Sony a7S III, well, I've never used it and I would need to then Google it and figure out the specs for you. And so, yeah, I try to be as helpful as possible, but I also can't always answer every question. But with that said, please feel free to reach out if anybody has photography questions. And yeah, I'm always just excited to see the content people create and put up there. And, you know, we're in a world where we look at a lot of content all day long. And I think that there's, there's nothing wrong with that. And there's plenty of space for people to just to put out more content, basically.
Katie
Well, that's perfect way to end it. And again, I appreciate you taking the time to come on here with your broken finger and making it work. So thank you so much. And I had a great time talking with you.
Jessica
Yeah, thank you so much.
Katie
All right, guys, thanks for listening. Don't forget to head over to the website fishuntamed.com for all episodes and show notes. And also please subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. That'll get my episodes delivered straight to your phone. And also if you have not yet, please consider going over to Apple Podcasts and leaving a rating or review. That's very helpful for me and I'd greatly appreciate it. Other than that, thank you guys again for listening and I will be back in two weeks. Bye everybody.
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