He caught fish. I caught him.

As part of my usage of Fuji Velvia 100 film, I spent some time photographing the covered bridges in Bennington County, Vermont. Just a few test shots, nothing out of the ordinary.

Bennington has five covered bridges, including three that are within minutes of each other – the Silk Covered Bridge, the Paper Mill Covered Bridge, and the Burt Henry Covered Bridge. It is estimated that the Silk Covered Bridge was built circa 1840, and has survived, with minor repairs, to this day. Not even Hurricane Irene in 2011 could knock it completely down.

Of course, it’s one thing to capture an image of the bridge straight-on. It’s another, however, to capture the bridge from the shoreline of the Walloomsac River. Which, thanks to a sloping, wet dirt path, I achieved.

And I wasn’t expecting to find a fly fisherman down there.

We exchanged greetings.

I didn’t want him to move from that spot. Well, I did ask him to back up just a little, so that he would be more in frame with the bridge.

For me, that also meant walking directly into the shallow Walloomsac riverbed.

“I’m not disturbing your fishing, am I?”

“No, not at all,” he said, casting his line one more time.

I had my Rollei at the rady. One shot. Snap. Got him.

Then I attempted to climb back up the hill. Man, that dirt and mud is slippery as all. And two foot surgeries don’t make it an easy climb. But I made it. Memo to self. If I do this again, pack some extra dry woolly socks in the car.

Sent the slide film off for processing.

And when the developed film returned to me, I saw the fisherman and the bridge on the roll.

Scanned it. Cropped it. Adjusted the highlights.

And this came out.

Wow. This is swank.

You know that moment when you get an image, and something about it just makes you smile?

I think this one will work out nicely on that front.

Yeah.