Marshals: Bad with the good

At B.A.S.S., we rely heavily on Marshals. Trip Weldon tells them, âYou are our eyes and ears on the water.â Not only do they protect the integrity of the sport, but Marshals enter every fish weight into BASSTrakk phones, allowing everyone to keep up with the tournament. They also send photos for the Elite live blog. Some are great, some not so much. Some are awful. Letâs take a gander at a variety of those, and while we do that weâll try to illuminate what might have gone wrong and provide tips to improve. This is in no way being critical of the Marshals. We love them!

All captions: Mike Suchan

Letâs start with this disaster, which seems to be saying, âHey, the sun is over there, thereâs a cool arc thingy going on in my wide-angle shot. And yes, there is a boat there in the middle.â

WARNING: Any Marshal whose photo is included, please do not take offense with these critiques. We hope that showing the bad helps all of us get more good. And by the way, Bassmaster.com editor Chris Mitchell sent in this photo for the live blog – and he gets paid to do it. So Marshals, your efforts are appreciated, but by showing common problems we hope to cull up on the quality.

Hereâs a Marshal shot of Josh Bertrand fighting a fish out of the buck brush. That is really nice action, but do you notice a problem? Anything? Yep, knew youâd see it. A finger is just barely noticeable in the top left corner.

Hereâs why we said just barely noticeable. That looks like more than a thumb. Maybe one of his brothers was mooning him. Itâs still a decent shot of Lane and his hefty smally, but to fix this issue youâd have to crop it super vertical.

We see that Bernie Schultz has an awesome fish – and that this Marshal has one of the biggest thumbs ever – maybe thatâs his hand and he was wiping the camera lens. We understand that a new piece of technology might not be so easy to adjust to, but take a moment to figure it out. Play with it. Take practice shots. Look at them. Out in bright sunlight, everyone has issues but this would be hard to miss.

Schultz was yet again the victim of an issue that Marshals experience from time to time. Almost got one of his sunglass lenses in. Itâs great of the fish and the background scenery, which can really make these photos. We have a rather horizontal format on Bassmaster.com, so framing the shot can be important. Tip: Get all the anglerâs face first, then worry about the fish – and all the fish doesnât have to be there.

The fish is centered – and itâs good for spies checking out electronics – but instead of a top crop fail, Jason Christie had half his head cut out of frame. We admit things can move awful fast on the deck of a boat, especially during a catch. Admittedly the candid, action shots are preferred, but sometimes a Marshal just has to ask the angler to stop and pose for a second. (Somehow, in a Facebooky kind of way, this is a pretty cool photo.)

We realize and appreciate this Marshal is working hard to the capture the action, but hereâs a double negative. We have a big section of finger and a headless angler, although itâs great heâs actually battling a bass.

Rapid-fire shots show a beautiful swing and a good fish – hey, I think I know who that is. Thatâs one thing weâd ask all Marshals to do when sending in their photos: give more than just a clue of who it is. Include at least the anglerâs last name on the email. Our publishers do pretty well identifying them, just not always in their cold weather or rain gear, or their backsides. Well, some of us can, but itâs easier and faster when we know without having to play detective.

Say, this is Kelly Jordon, and with a nice smallmouth. Now here is a standard, quality photo most Marshals take. Itâs very telling to most tournament anglers, who look at shots like this with much more scrutiny than weekend anglers. They can probably tell you what bait he threw, and probably what color.

Fred Roumbanisâ outlook had to be bright with this lunker, but a slight turn so the sun wasnât directly behind him would have made it a much better shot. Pro photographers say sunny days can make it difficult to shoot – most prefer diffused lighting. A light source from behind can spell disaster, so think about that and move a bit.

The same deal goes with this Chris Lane and this monster. Say, was all the color eliminated because it was backlit so much? Editing programs on phones are getting rather sophisticated but â¦

â¦ the Marshal probably could have kept working on this photo of Justin Lucas and his healthy catch. Like a writer who shouldnât use words he canât spell, Marshals who canât get out of the work field maybe shouldnât use photo editing apps. Not sure how this happens, but Iâd hit cancel.

Hereâs an action shot of Brock Mosely that could have been incredible â¦ if it was in focus. Everyone admits itâs not always easy to capture movement in low light, but touching the screen to get the subject in focus is key.

And you really want to do that if your subject is stationary. Remember, on most phones, if the camera is on the subject, you can tap the screen to focus on them. Thereâs still a chance, if youâre not paying complete attention, that the camera focuses on something behind the angler, but at least you tried.

Pretty nice shot of Josh Bertrand using his culling beam, but a slight move before snapping the shutter could have captured his face and eyes, which we all know are the window to the soul.

Who is that getting it done at the livewell? Marshals, what did we learn earlier? Include the anglerâs name. Some of our publishers might not immediately know thatâs Fletcher Shyrock. They might have to research the clues, taking precious time during a hectic day. We might not want to bug anglers, but yelling hey usually makes them look up.

Maybe if what took Jacob Powroznik’s attention was included, this wouldn’t require a retake. Pro photogs snap several, may 3 to 5, of the same pose to make sure they get a shot where the subject doesn’t have his eyes closed, etc. So this one doesn’t grade high, unless, of course, Powroznik said âShoot my good side.â

There you go. We’re usually not a fans of staged shots, preferring the candid action when obtainable, but the ole standard fish pic just seems to require a look into the camera.

Not sure whatâs going on here except this photo is way too tight on Bill Lowen. Yes, we see the fish, just seems too close to see what he is doing. What is he doing?

Lowenâs shot and this one of Matt Herren remind us that Marshals are allowed to get off the seat and move around, unless the angler asks otherwise. We know itâs their tournament day, so maybe asking their ground rules is not a bad idea. Another helpful tip is to turn the camera and shoot horizontal photos, remember? Sometimes just asking the angler to hold the fish higher, near face level and maybe to the side, will help. So would the two-hand horizontal hold conservationists prefer nowadays.

This eagle in its nest is actually rather cool with nice composition of the tree, but the quality of the zoom on a camera phone leaves a lot to be desired. Definitely not saying Marshals shouldnât try photos like that â¦

â¦But sometimes those far-off nature shots are best left to the pros. Thatâs ace Elite photog James Overstreet with a camera and telephoto lens worth about 20 or more of them smartphones, so it should get be able to get up there and see what those eagles are feeding their eaglets. By the way, nice candid shot of JO during his 30-second break. It’s rare to see him without the camera up to his eye.

The Bassmaster Marshals do take more good photos than bad, like Daniel Panchar capturing the emotion of rookie Adrian Avena with a nice catch.

Itâs really great when a Marshal provides news we miss, like Chris Zaldain having to get a ride back to Winyah Bay with Brent Chapman after he broke down.

Some photos are crazy outstanding. Marshal Kyle Johnson had one at Winyah when he saw golfers dressed like olden times, and he gave it a fun spin on Masterâs Sunday. âAlways knew these boats were fast, but this is a new one for me … J-powâs (Jacob Powroznik) boat is so fast it seems we have hit some kind of time warp.â Clever.

Sometimes simple images like this one of Bobby Lane are very telling. Some might think heâs praying for a fish but heâs on his knees to lower his profile so the bedding bass doesnât scatter due to his presence â¦. And heâs praying he can catch it.

Matt Herren isnât getting sick here, is he? No, our Marshall said his bass got hung up in the brush and Herren was working to pull it out.

Yeah, Herren got it. These photos tell a great part of the story of the fishing at Bull Shoals. Fish were in that brush bedding and would often tie up the anglers, who had to go in quickly to extract them or they would get off.

Donât you love it when our anglers give us a travelogue photo of their environs – kinda helps put us there with them. Hereâs the view from the lodge at Lake Guntersville State Park. Some are better than others, but the slices of life from the odd scene in the wilds, or even a crazy sign at a restaurant or huge platter of crawdads, add flavor. Usually things the anglers find interesting are of interest to our audience.

Some folks are suckers for the huge boats the anglers sometime have to work around. Photos of how small bass boats appear next to these monster ships help install the fear some Marshals might be feeling â¦ some Elites, too.

Thereâs not a thing wrong with this photo. When you first see it on an email, it appears much smaller and those birds look like dirt on a camera lens. The problem is nothing was noted in the email, even that they were birds. Gerald Swindle might have even known what species and what they were up to if asked, which with a tighter crop could tell an interesting story.

Sometimes the anglers do point out crazy stuff, like Josh Bertrand slowing down here to check on a boat that capsized at Wheeler Lake. Matt Lee rescued the two men, but other pros reported looking to see if they could help, and Marshal Joe McElroy got a shot of the sinking vessel.

Serious news shots are incredible, and weâve used Marshalsâ photos numerous times to illuminate stories. But everyone enjoys having fun. Brent Chapman and his Marshal are going for the record of the smallest bass ever caught. You see how Chapman has his arm out to try to make that one look bigger?

And photos of Elites with wrong species is always fun. At Bulls Shoals, there was a bullfrog and snapping turtle hooked. Here Kelley Jaye is shown with a drum and the only words on the email were, âIt was fun for a minute.â Yeah. Can you imagine? After each event, at least one Marshal emails Bassmaster.com reporting he had more than a minute of fun, learned a bunch from great guys, and recommends others do it. For all who have been Marshals, good photos or bad, thank you.