Ice fishing
by Keith A Anderson
The Outdoor Campus(alias TOC) a joint project between our city and the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Dept. sponsors "Middle School Days" on a regular basis. On these days bus loads of kids and their teachers from Sioux Falls and surrounding communities descend on TOC where they experience things like snow shoeing, cross country skiing, cooking, animal track identification, etc. The hope is to introduce kids to outdoor activities that they may never experience at home. My wife has been a very involved volunteer at TOC for years and particularly loves doing the ice fishing activities with the kids. TOC has it's own pond, stocked mainly with sunfish but spiced with the occasional 3 lb. bass or catfish. This photo was taken one balmy Feb. day in the teens. The good news was that most of the kids had warm shoes on and not just a pair of holey tennies. It's a real treat to see a sixth or seventh grader pull their first fish ever up through a hole in 18 inches of ice!
Cropped to pano. Comments welcome.
1D2N, 70-200 f2.8 at 140 mm, 1/2000, f 6.3, iso 200
Comments
12 commentsWhile I like this just fine (a lot, actually) just the way it is, I played with screen cropping. If you eliminate the top and bottom so you have just a narrow band of kids fishing in the snow, it makes one of the best "panoramics" I've ever seen. It's a really compelling study of poses and action, which keeps my eye moving almost like watching a movie. I've taken the liberty of cropping a screen grab to show what I mean. I hope that was alright!
Or did I just tip my hand as a kid lover?
Sounds like a grand project.
Cheers,
Carol
As posted, this is an inviting image because the long line of busy people on the ice makes the viewer ask "what the heck are those people doing?" That will make them look closer, and read the story. Perhaps a headline asking the queston would enhance this. Without that headling, the extreme crop that Hank suggests helps the viewer zoom in on the action to more quickly tell the story. GREAT PROGRAM -- congrats to you and your wife for volunteering!
I like Hank's idea too, for other uses.
THis image should be offered to the TOC program as a poster or something - they would surely love it.
Congrats on the EP!!
Sandy r
Well deserved.
Cheers,
Carol