There are 3 ways of taking self-portraits:
1) With the self-timer if your camera has one.
2) With an infra-red remote control if available for your model.
3) With an air release.
With the self-timer you get just one photo unless your camera has a motor drive or its equivalent on a digital. Even then, you can quickly run out of pictures. What’s worse is that with a motor drive the flash almost certainly won’t have recharged for subsequent photos. Because I find that using flash improves trophy shots such a huge amount, I always without exception use flash for such pictures, even in daylight.
Turning to infra-red remotes, most of these are fiddly and difficult to use when holding and repositioning a fish, especially the majority of models that can be operated only by hand. Additionally, it means that your catch is out of the water for longer, which of course we all want to avoid.
The answer is to use an air release. As you can see it’s a rubber bulb that’s connected to the camera by a long cable. If you put the bulb under your knee it’s easy to squeeze it, which then operates the shutter. This leaves both hands completely free to hold the fish securely. Moreover, repositioning the fish for extra photos is also dead easy.
One potential problem is that almost no amateur camera these days has a screw thread on the shutter button to take an air release. This is where the Kaiser adaptor comes in.
It’s an adjustable velcro strap that’s fitted around your camera and to which the air release is screwed. As long as you line everything up it’s easy and foolproof. To be on the safe side though, I’d suggest you fire off a test shot before you start fishing • it’s easy to forget in the excitement of catching a whopper!
Both the Kaiser adaptor and air release are available from most good camera shops or go to http://www.jessops.com/search/dointellisearch.cfm Expect to pay about £30 for the pair, which I reckon is an excellent investment for ease of use and fish care.
Copyright Steve Burke 2004
