First Photowalk with the New Camera

As I mentioned in my post about the International Fly Tying Symposium, I recently decided to take my photography to the next level and get into the world of SLR cameras.  I did an ungodly amount of reading, both official literature from the camera manufacturers and neutral-party reviews.  Compared side-by-side, went to stores to handle different models, and read everything I could find about the models in which I was interested on message boards across the internet.  When I thought I'd made up my mind, I still kept my eyes open for other possibilities, even as I pursued the ones I was interested in.  Several deals fell through,...

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International Fly Tying Symposium

Last weekend I attended the 20th International Fly Tying Symposium in Somerset, New Jersey.  It was a great time, and I learned a great deal as well as bringing home a pile of nice material.  It's the first time I've attended a show like this, but I'll definitely be looking to attend more.  Seeing so many experts in one place, it was impossible to walk away without learning something. I got the chance to talk with many of the tyers, and those were the times when I learned the most.  Being able to ask how or why a particular technique was used is something that you really miss out on when you go to YouTube.  Also, the...

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Drifting Flies for Erie Steelhead

With the steelhead primer being so well received by the online community, I've been getting some feedback here and there, with comments, suggestions, and, in some cases, some questions.  Whether a reader is seeking clarification on something I wrote in one of the parts of the primer, or they're seeking new information on an area I covered briefly, or not at all, I do my best to get back to them with an answer as soon as I can.  In most cases, that means within 2-3 weekdays, but in one case was as soon as a few hours. That said, I encourage anyone reading DotD who feels so inclined to send along an email.  In addition to using the 'Contact Me' button in the sidebar, you can also send an email direct to dharmaofthedrift@gmail.com and I'll get a response to you as soon as I can....

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Fly Tying Tutorial: Stimulator

While it's still possible to take a trout on a dry fly here in Pennsylvania, most would agree that dry fly season is over for this part of the world, or at very least, winding down rapidly to its end.  I caught many fish on a wide variety of flies this year, but one specific pattern stood out from the crowd this year, establishing itself firmly as the pattern of the year: the venerable stimulator.  While top honors last year were shared by the parachute adams (which positively knocked trout sideways all spring), and a green emergent sparkle caddis (quietly representing with impressive numbers of fish in any water condition short of...

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Getting a Face Lift

I'm sure all the regular visitors have noticed that the site recently received a pretty significant face lift, this was due to some sort of conflict or error in the coding, which was causing the featured content slider to lock up.  After several days of tinkering, altering, adjusting and muttering bad words, I finally decided that it was a lost cause, and went shopping for a new template.  Amazingly enough, the sliders weren't working in many of the templates I tried (leading me to believe that the problem may not have been in this site's code after all), but eventually, I found this one, which I think looks pretty sharp.  I hope you'll agree...or at least not disagree so much that you stop reading! In any event, I'm going to do my best to keep this layout clean, uncluttered,...

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More Fall Photos

Haven't been doing much fishing or tying lately, though now that Halloween is behind us, that is soon to change.  At very least, I need to resupply my glo-bugs before my next trip north.  Recently, though, I've made myself content with getting out of the house here and there to drive around and take some nice pictures when the light is right.  As the sun dipped down, the image quality rapidly deteriorated, but I was fairly pleased with these shots... As always, these images are links, and clicking on them will take you to the full-size version.  If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please leave a...

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