Ontario Out of Doors

A little while back I was pleasantly surprised by an email inquiry that entered into my inbox out of the blue.  The email turned out to be from the Art Director of Ontario Out of Doors Magazine.  He was in need of some Steelheading images from the Saugeen or Maitland Rivers to compliment an article they were featuring on the Lake Huron fishery from Sarnia to Tobermory for their "Fishing Annual" edition that would be hitting the shelves in March.  He complimented me on the blog and stated he would be willing to purchase any that he saw fit to run in the publication.  I have had some past exposure with other quality publications but this request came out of the blue and as a total surprise.
While growing up Ontario Out of Doors was always my favourite outdoors publication.  To me it set the standard for Canadian Outdoors Magazines with stunning imagery and in depth writing.  It shared a healthy balance of a love of the outdoors along with quality fishing and hunting elements.
To have an invitation or opportunity to submit some of my humble photography at the request of their Art Director was certainly a compliment that I with cherish for some time.

My only dilemma was that I had recently spent limited time on either of these rivers in lieu of finding much preferred solitude on some other local and not so local flows.  I spent some time going through my picture achieve until I ran across one image that had always been a favourite of mine.  It was going back a ways when I got my first digital camera.  I can still remember the morning it was taken and the sun cresting over the tree line behind Denny's Dam while the mist rolled off the river into the crisp morning air.

The image certainly captured the moment and  my memory of that outing in a nut shell and spoke to the true essence of first light spring steelheading.  I was overjoyed when I got the news that OOD was pleased with the submission and that it was going to be run in their Fishing Annual.  I was at the dentist late last week and seen the magazine on their reading rack.  I wasn't sure if it had hit the news stand yet but there it was before me...I hastily leafed through the pages and there in full print along with photo credit was my humble submission.  I am by no means a professional photographer...I promote and pride myself on my point and shoot methodology.  I do however have high standards for my imagery and when validation in this form comes my way it is a great reward for my efforts.  At their request I also submitted a fair amount of stock photography for future publications if and when  they are in need.  With any luck I just may have some more photo credits for my slowly growing portfolio.  I must say they are a top notch publication with very professional and personalble individuals to deal with.  I sincerely hope we can work together in the future.  Stay tuned...