GoPro underwater focus fix

The GoPro HD Hero video camera has created a huge buzz this year. It is a small super wide angle video camera with a rugged underwater housing and several mountings for different applications: you can attach it on your car, boat, helmet, bike, wrist, fishing rod, guitar, model helicopter, plane, skateboard… Basically anywhere! It’s small and handy and films with a maximum 170 degree angle (720p or 920p HD). You can also switch to a narrower view of 127 degrees and get full 1080p HD. Well, read all about the specs elsewhere, this blog is not about that.

There’s namely one big disadvantage with the GoPro HD Hero. The underwater picture is blurry and out of focus. As they say on the GoPro official webpage: Please note that due to the curved lens of the waterproof housing for the HD HERO camera and standard def Wide HERO cameras, you will notice a slight loss of sharpness with underwater images.

I can tell you this loss of sharpness is not ”slight”. It’s a matter of being able to use the material or not.

Luckily, there’s a way of getting around this problem. Either you can order a special underwater housing from a second party manufacturer, or you can do as I did, modify your housing yourself. It’s easy, fast and cheap. Here we go, gopro:

You need:

• GoPro underwater housing
• Philips Avent baby bottle (probably some other brands do as well)
• Hobby knife
• Saw
• Sand paper
• UV-filter ø 58 mm
• Black permanent marker
• Epoxy glue

See the instructions on the following slide show:

This modified housing works great on the narrower 127 degree angle. The superwide angle captures some of the ring in the corners. However, I prefer the narrower view and the full HD when shooting underwater.

The result? See for yourself:

The big trout perspective

The picture of the monster trout on the previous blog made some people suspicious. Was the picture somehow manipulated? Or was the fish really that big? The answer to both questions is yes. The picture has been digitally manipulated, but the size of the fish is real.

We’ve had countless discussions about how a picture of a catch should be taken. A big and fat fish appears big, fat and beautiful in a good photo, but you can also ruin the shot pretty easily.

One of the biggest and prettiest trout I ever caught was captured on camera. Too bad my pose was terrible as I’m blocking the view to the fish with my arm. The trout is also partially under water which makes it even more difficult to admire the fat and firm belly of the fish:

Joona blocking the trout

Here are some hint for better pictures:

• take a tight shot with the fisherman and the fish

• if you´re going to release the fish, keep it in the net under the water and lift it up quickly for the shot before release

• don’t block the view of the fish with your body, arms or fingers

• keep the fish clean, and rinse it with water

• use a wide angle lens and hold the fish slightly in front of you: a wide angle lens makes objects closer to the camera appear bigger (but that goes with your fingers too!)

• look through the camera viewfinder/screen and try different angles to find the one that looks best

One of the lakes we were fishing was overpopulated by small trout. We caught some trout for dinner, and took a couple of photos of a 25 cm trout with a regular compact camera with a wide angle lens. The picture doesn’t lie, or does it?

Trout in front of Håvard

Håvard in front of the trout

Finally, some photos from different points of view:

The photoshopping of the trout? The picture was cropped, the line was ”removed” from the picture and Håvard’s finger tips were cut in from another photo. But the fish is in natural size. It’s all about perspective.

This was the trick

The original

Huge trout – incredible!

Here’s a sneak peek for one of the upcoming blogs. Håvard caught this huge trout on one of our recent trips. Stay tuned, we’ll tell all about it later!

Super size trout

Picture gallery from the north

Here are some pictures from one of the recent Jazz and Fly Fishing trips. Let’s start with the introduction:

Extreme arctic fishing ahead!

Hi

I’m just finishing my packing for the expedition we are going to make with the JFF team. The destination is far up north, about as far as you can get in Europe. Tomorrow I will travel to Kiruna in northern Sweden where I’ll catch up with the other guys. Then we drive further up north to a secret destination that might be revealed later. What I can tell you is that no jazz band has ever fished there before.

We are expecting to encounter big trout and arctic char on this trip. We know for sure that where we are heading there’s fish up to 5 kilos, and trout between 2 and 3 kilos are not rare. But if they are easy to catch, that’s another thing. There’s also the riskt that the northern wind can spoil the trip. Heavy winds from the North Pole can make fly fishing difficult at times. In the northernmost parts of Scandinavia there are hadly any trees to stop the wind either.So this trip is like gambling, we put all in and might get home empty-handed, or we might hit the jackpot.

We will of course be filming the action and the films will be published on this site. Be patient – for some reason we like to spend more time fishing than editing movies right now. As soon as we get back we’ll start working on the video footage!

Picture gallery from the tour

Blog from Eco-Rapids #2

Here are some more photos from the Finnish tour. There were taken at Eco-Rapids by our guide Antti Härkönen, who is of course a fly fisherman, but also very much into music. He sings in a heavy metal band but after meeting us he’s totally into jazz and is considering going into modal jazz growl-scatting.

Thanks for the beautiful pics and good guiding Antti!

Tour feelings

Blog from Eco-Rapids #1

Greetings from the JFF mini tour in Finland! We started off with a gig in Helsinki, it was nice to be together again! We also saw some of the TV documentary for the first time and I can tell you it was special. Soon a year has gone since the TV-tour last summer and seeing all the places and happenings brought back the memories.

The gig was a lot of fun, we wrapped up and headed straight north towards Eco-Rapids in northeastern Finland. We have spent the last few days there fishing in a rapid called Kynäkoski and a smaller river Syväjoki, check out the pictures!

Tonight we have some very special fishing in Jyväskylä in Central Finland, and in the evening it’s time for the documentary and the gig again. We’ll be posting some videos and stuff soon, so stay tuned!

Tour coming up!

It’s time for a tour in Finland now! In a couple of days we’ll be off for some gigs and fishing, and the producers will reveal first glimpses of the JFF television documentary series. We haven’t seen any of it, so it’s pretty exciting. Will we be making fools of ourselves in front of the audience that we will play for? That’s very exciting…

We’ll start off with a gig and a documentary preview in Helsinki and then head for a fishing spot called Eco-Rapids in North-Eastern Finland. The place known for the ecological values in fishing regulations in the area. Despite rather strong fishing pressure the waters and the fish population are kept as natural as possible. We will be visiting some of the many rivers and lakes in the area. Our aim is to catch one of the big trout that swim in those waters. Trout over 60 centimeters is not a rarity there…

After a couple of days of fishing we’ll have another gig in Jyväskylä in Central Finland, again with the documentary as starters. It’s so nice to be on tour again!

Here are some gig details for all of you who want to pay a visit!

Saturday 12.6.2010 19–23 @ Kapsäkki, Hämeentie 68, Helsinki
19:00 TV-documentary preview
21:00 Jazz & Fly Fishing band
Tickets 10 eur from www.lippu.fi and at the venue

Thursday 17.6.2010 19.30 – 23.30 @ Poppari, Puistokatu 2-4, Jyväskylä
19:30 TV-documentary preview
21:30 Jazz & Fly Fishing band
Tickets 7/5 eur at the venue

Color coding

Maybe the biggest problem on our tours is the amount of gear. Four guys + the producer carry a hell lot of gear. It would be enough with just the fishing equipment, but add the music stuff and the film gear. Rods, reels, lines, cables, power adapters, vests, clothes, computers, fly boxes, floatants, pliers, waders, guitars, music sheets, cameras, tripods, sunglasses, deodorants… in one car!

Here’s the solution to all trouble with all JFF gear: Color coding. I bought 416 colored dots for each and every one of us. We can mark everything with our own favorite colors. We must! I will make you to!!!! Since I am the mother of all dots I hereby choose red. Everything marked with red is mine. Hands off!

Multicolor

Full moon

The weather was excellent when me and Fredrik decided to go for sea trout fishing after a long break. Light wind from the west and good conditions in the water. A couple of hours of fishing in the evening, and Fredrik’s sinking line and a big shrimp imitation were what the trout liked. He landed two beautiful trout and all I got was a couple of takes and a big wave behing my muddler minnow. When the sun went down the big beautiful full moon rose up, and the lighted up the path to the car. I just love night fishing!