The Reason behind Photography (for me)

Fishing on the Bill Williams River
National Wildlife Refuge

I'm sure I mentioned in one of my first posts to this blog that one of the main reasons I took up photography was to give me a reason to be outdoors like I had been years ago when I used to fish. This last weekend those two interests intersected for the first time since starting my photography hobby.

I was out along the Colorado River, south of Lake Havasu City, on the border between Arizona and California. I'd spent the night in Lake Havasu City and was heading back home in the somewhat early morning. At about 7:30 I made it to the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge. There's a bridge that spans the cattail filled river which, running from east to west, empties into the Colorado River at Lake Havasu, not too far north of Parker Dam.

It looks like it could be a wonderful place to take pictures of birds but there weren't any there. However, there was a nice fishing boat with a couple of guys taking advantage of the serene beauty. I knew what they must have gone through to get their boat to that point by that time in the morning, and I could feel the rod and reel in my hands, the line spooling off the reel, as I watched them cast. I wondered what species they were targeting. I wondered what type of bait or lure they were using and what I'd choose for that area and time of day.

I felt a twinge of a start of an urge to see if my rods and reels were still functional and to try hitting some water myself. But then I remembered how I just don't like the thought of actually puncturing the jaw of a fish with a metal hook simply for my pleasure. So the twinge faded as quick as it came.

But the enjoyment of being out on a not yet hot early morning, along side a body of water, with very little man-made noise (only an occasional car), was shared between me and the fisher dudes. It made me smile then as it does now. My photography not only got me there for that moment but when I look at this picture I'll always have that memory.