Still, in Focus
“Shiny and black. Look for shiny and black,” Val Atkinson says with an easy tone. His eyes project downward on the dirt two-track path we’re walking along. We are on Hat Creek in Northern California, heading out to fish and look for arrowheads.
Val is carrying a fly rod—the one rod between us for the day—and a camera with a small, fixed lens is slung across his shoulder. He’s wearing lightweight fishing pants and a long-sleeve fishing shirt. The noted fishing photographer is now 73.
“See all of the broken shells and this mound over here?” he asks, pointing what might look like, to the casual observer, a pile of dirt. “This is a midden. People were living here thousands of years ago.”
Along with arrowheads, Val is hoping we see a few salmonflies too, maybe even enough to get the fish keyed in on them.
Large, white oaks are sparsely laid out in the tall bunch grass above the water where we walk. A dense community of ponderosa pines covers the nearby surrounding hills. Cumulous clouds
