By Campbell
The past month has been an excellent time for my creative growth! I have been able to pursue my passions like cinematography and fly tying in between working full time. As I have previously discussed, I have spent a lot of time filming surfing, leading to other opportunities, even shooting videos for brands! I have made many trips to the Outer Banks, South Carolina, and my local beaches when filming. In North Carolina, most of our big swells come with high winds and rain. Being a filmmaker, it’s quite the experience to be standing for hours filming in heavy rain and 30 mph winds in the pursuit of a shot. I keep doing this, though, because I love to have a piece of media that makes me proud and that the surfer will value and cherish. Editing with surfers has helped me with my communication skills a lot. Many are relatively far from me, so we cannot sit down and edit together. Instead, I have to do this over the phone, which can be challenging. I’ve been able to get a good workflow, though, where I can communicate with people all around the world and collaborate on work efficiently and effectively. This is a skill I know I will carry on to whatever job I will have after college, and I am grateful for this.
The second skill I have been honing in has been my fly tying. I have always loved fly fishing because it is a way to connect to nature like nothing else. It is a sport that makes you a part of an ecosystem and requires you to study it and have a deep understanding of everything around you. For example, if you are fishing a piece of water, you have to know how to read the water, where to cast, what to throw, and how to present the fly, and this is all before you even have hooked the fish. Those who want to take things deeper can decide to tie their own flies. I have learned the life cycles and species of many insects in the United States located on trout streams and work to craft patterns just like them. It really is an art form that is hard to master, but I am trying very hard and also touching up on my entomology. Below I attached a picture of one of my favorite flies I have tied. It is called a “Purple Haze” and is a variation of a “Parachute Adams” fly pattern. This is meant to imitate a Mayfly in the Dun stage. This is essentially the young adult stage in terms of its life cycle. I cannot wait to spend some time up in the mountains when the mayflies start hatching, putting these flies to work!
