The Sturgeon Wrangler

Well... I told you right from the start that I wasn't necessarily going to be the best man for this blogging job.  Sorry it's been so long since my initial post, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to be more dedicated to this moving forward.

A lot has happened in the months since my first post.  I've had a chance to travel a bit, spending eight days on Vancouver Island photographing and taking in the sites.  Thank you very much to my wonderful wife who made that happen for me!  It was wonderful to spend time with only myself to worry about, though I missed my wife and kids tremendously!  I was able to see so much while I was there and I hope to share some of that with you soon.

I've also been doing a lot of shooting with a good friend of mine.  He has been generous enough to send some work my way and it has been a great learning experience.  We've also been working on some personal projects together and I look forward to sharing some of that with you as well.  A few weeks ago I even shot a wedding (which I don't do a whole lot of!), which pushed me in some areas, but the results were great, and the couple are enjoying their memories from the day!

I wanted to come back with a super memorable post for you all to enjoy, seeing as how I've kept you in the dark for so long now!  A number of years ago my friends and I had the opportunity to paddle down one of Manitoba's heritage rivers - the Bloodvein.  For those of you who have paddled the river you know what a pleasure the it is, and I would consider it one of the best trips for the money in the province.

This particular trip we were treated to a rare visit from one of Manitoba's giant species of fish - the Sturgeon. It was sunning itself in one of the pools by our campsite, spending an entire morning there teasing us with visions of hooking on to it with our rod and reels.  After coming to the conclusion that this was not going to happen, I got it into my head that we should see how close we could get to it in the water.  It seemed so docile as it soaked up the rays of the sun that I thought we must be able to get right up next to it.  My first attempt to do so allowed me to touch the giant fish along it's back before it swam away.  It was then that I knew we had to try catching this fish with our bare hands!

I thought I must have spooked it for sure, because it didn't come back for a long time.  We were disappointed to say the least, and so decided to do some play boating in the rapids for the afternoon.  It was then that my friend yelled at us to come quick and see - the monster was back!

I'll let the video tell the rest of the tale - I'm the one in the blue rain jacket with sunglasses.  If you watch closely at the beginning you can actually see the fish swimming away from us (though it's hard at the small resolution of the video).  It's also a bit noisy with the sound of the rushing water and wind, but it's worth a watch...

The Sturgeon Wrangler

Bloodvein River - 2007

©Daniel Menheer, 2007

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to the initial post for my new blog.  I swore I'd never do this... who in their right mind would want to blog about stuff!?  It seemed like such a waste of time!  But here I am... typing away on my keyboard... trying to come up with something to say.

I'll admit right off the top - I'm no writer!  A lot of what you'll read on this blog is going to be random thoughts that randomly come out of my head and onto the screen.  And I'm sure a lot of it won't make any sense!  Alas, there are things I'd like to share that just don't fit into the confines of my website, and that's where this comes in.

A good friend of mine suggested to me a few months ago that I should start a blog about my outdoor adventuring.  You see, I love the outdoors, and that love of the outdoors is what helped spark my passion for wanting to photograph it!  I'm not an adventurer that you would find in one of those crazy, over the top videos from the Banff Film Festival.  No... my outdoorsy stuff is a lot more laid back.  I do a lot of hiking and biking, but mostly I love to paddle.  My canoe and I have been through a lot together, and we've logged many miles through the Manitoba wilderness!  It's from these trips into the great outdoors that I would like to share with you a little of what I get to witness that many others miss out on.

Enjoying a dip through a rapid on the

 Manigitogan River - 2009

So... while I will be sharing some new landscape and nature images as well, a lot of what you'll see here will be from my tripping - both past and to come.  I make no promises as to how often I'll update here.  I would like to have a goal of once a week - but with two kids and everything else that's going on around home, that may be a bit ambitious!  Anyway, it should be fun, and I hope you enjoy.  Feel free to let me know how I'm doing by leaving the odd comment - I'll be sure to check them out.