Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Secrets of Condello Technique revealed!

This news flash just in!

Bruce Condello holds his fish out in front of him for photos! Now I know this may come as a shock to many of you. As a matter of fact, you've probably just assumed that I was holding the fish behind me...but no, it's true, I've got the fish out in front of me.

If you would like to know some of the secrets to this technique, read on!

Rule #1. Catch a big fish. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to make a 9 inch bluegill look like a 12 inch bluegill, nor will you be able to make a 15 inch bass look like a 22 incher. There are certain morphological characteristics that are highly distinguishable between small and large fish. Using good photographic technique you can make a small fish appear medium. You can make a medium fish appear large, and you can make a large fish appear even larger! But there are limitations to what you can do and maintain a modest plausibility factor.

Rule #2. Get the photographer close to the subject. Close to the fish AND close to the human subject. You don't want to be so close that the camera can't focus down, but if you're too far away, the photo will lose impact. Look at the following three photos.

In this photo, the subject is too far away. It is difficult to identify any characteristics of the fish, and the background is too predominant.

This photo is about right. Both subjects are in clear focus. I am holding the fish about half way to full extension of arms.

In this photo, the photographer has gotten too close. Plausibility is lost, and you lose perspective on location of human subject in three dimensions. The human subject begins to lose focus. In this photo I am holding the fish out to full extension. This is not a pleasing photo.


Rule #3. As hinted before, do not hold the fish at full extension. This tends to ruin the plausibility factor, and makes it much more difficult to maintain a focus on both fish and human subject. Here are a couple of examples.

Here's a spotted sucker being held with no extension.



Here's the same spotted sucker being held at full extension. As you can see, when the fish is held out at full arm extension, focus is lost in either the fish or human subject, both of which greatly diiminish the impact of the photo.





Rule #4. Hide your hands. I purposely took some photos to demonstrate this problem. Bob had asked me last week to do an article in Pond Boss magazine on this, but the situation lead me to believe that I needed to do something on the forum.

Look at this photo. My hand is not obscured, thereby giving the viewer an additional near perspective. which diminshes the impact of the photo.





But look at this next photo. My hand is hidden behind the fish, and this photo, which was taken with Dr. Jim Morgan becomes much more impactful. Keep in mind. We are not lying about the size of the fish. This is not photoshop. This is simply using techniques to emphasize what is already an incredible fish.



Rule #5. Take some photos of the same fish with full perspective. I tried taking the same fish shown above using a quarter laid on the fish to give some accurate and reproducible perspective. (No this is NOT a dime)



With ruler (sorry, but I couldn't focus down on the numbers on the tape while still getting the fish's head in the shot.



Boga grip.



..And I thought you might enjoy this one the most. It's our esteemed Birthday Boy Mr. Lusk taking a photo of me during a "Condello technique" pose.



And the same two fish "displayed" for possible publication in In-Fisherman magazine.



To be perfectly frank with you guys, I could be holding the fish out a LOT more than I am. Note the photo of Lusk taking my picture during the technique. The fact of the matter is that I was being brought to Richmond Mill for the specific purpose of writing an article for In-Fisherman. The article is meant to be detailed, accurate, informative and YES, it was meant to be entertaining. Had the photos not been taken to their standards there would be no article, and hence no promotion or benefit to Richmond Mill. I know that Dr. Morgan would have let me fish regardless because he is a generous and gracious host, just like Bob Lusk, but it really was to everybody's benefit to use modern photographic technique to give the fish a little "oomph". I make no apologies for the technique, and my lengths, and depictions of the size of fish were extremely accurate. Let there be no mistake....Richmond Mill Lake grows 2+ pound bluegill, amongst other high quality fish!

I can see a purpose and quality in each of the pics. I agree with your post. I would like more people to post fish and other pics. BTW nice hat and fish ! Nothing could diminish that look on Bob's face.

"(No this is NOT a dime)"

Was that for me?

Geesh, how long are you guys staying at Richmond Mills???

I was there three days, and I think Bob was there about six.

What a trip! What was the biggest LMB?

It was over 400 pounds.

Actually this fish was my biggest. It was measured on a flat ruler at 21.5 inches. Bob suggested that this was possibly the biggest feed trained fish caught out of Richmond Mill yet. There was no accurate weight taken, but perhaps Bob can make an estimation of weight. The Boga Grip said it was around 8 pounds, but I'm not sure about the accuracy of that device.

Frankly, that fish reminds me of the shape of a golden shiner, but just freakin' huge!

No, wait! That's Sunil's bench press!

What a story that would be! "Prey Eat's Predator"

No, wait! That's Sunil's bench barley press!

That relative weight of the LMB is impressive. Thanks for the explanation of each pose and style of photo. I have never doubted your intentions in your photographs. You know how to catch big fish, plain and simple... And that seriously has to be the biggest spotted sucker I have ever seen! You should post that bad boy over at http://www.roughfish.com/ They'd be impressed!

Bruce we have used the method for years even before it got your name. Great catches. If the bass was 8 lbs it would be 138% Wr and very believable looking at the shape. If 100% Wr it would only be 6 lbs at 21.5".

Thank you, Greg! I agree with your assessment.

+1

and your "brother" really knows how to take a great fish photo.


Thank you for the tips!

Nice post and some nice BG's.

these guys dont tolerate humans in the picture



a nice (almost) 9 incher caught yesterday on the fly

Do you really need a Boga Grip on that fish, or can't you just lip it????!

It's a GSF... It'll bite your finger off!

How about a pic of DIED fly fishing from his almost new boat ? Now that would be

alls i needs is a photographer

I love happy fishing photos. I love scientific fish photos. I love silly fish photos. The more photos on Pond Boss, the better.

LOL

Bruce, as someone who is in the business of creating image for impact, beauty, or reality, I completely appreciate you taking the time to figure out what makes the fish and human look best together. I can't say how many times I have tried to take a picture of a fish and it just look sucky.

In film, we use many techniques including lenses, focal length, and distance from the lens to create many different types of images. For instance, I did a film where we used wide lenses very close to a womans face to really bring out the creases, and well.. ugly lol. But it suited the film.

Anyway, I think for anyone to doubt your honesty or ability to catch big fish just doesn't know you. From what I hear you could probably outfish most of us 10:1.

Either way, I appreciate the wicked good looking pictures.

Thanks, MikeyBoy. Coming from somebody who knows film as much as you, that really means a lot.