More On Val Atkinson, 2 September 2009

R. Valentine Atkinson is a travel and leisure photographer who specializes in angling and shooting sports worldwide. His work has appeared in Esquire, Field & Stream, Fly Fisherman, Gray’s Sporting Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, Geo, Outside, Sierra, Sports Afield, Sunset, and Trout and Salmon.

Internationally renowned outdoor photographer Val Atkinson caught his first trout on a fly rod at the age of seven, and that fish sparked a flame that still keeps him warm. Thirty years ago he started taking a camera on fishing trips after realizing there was much more to angling than catching fish.

Val has produced four books, which “ fulfill a dream of enabling me to share these passions with you. I’ve now traveled to 29 countries on assignments and I must confess that in recent years the challenge of making a really great image has started to transcend my desire to catch fish.”

Atkinson specialises in the world of the fly fisherman. He explains: “I’m a Pisces. I’ve always felt an affinity with water – you could say water is in my soul. When I’m shooting, it’s like I see things with a double Pisces eye – the fish and the water.”

Most recently, Val has been in the Bahamas shooting stills for a movie called “Pirates of the Flats” about a group of celebrities who come together to fish for Bonefish and talk about conservation.

Every year Val visits us to pick up a rod and fish some of the secret pools and eddies on Poronui. And every year he puts down the rod and picks up a camera, capturing images of Poronui that we share with you on our website. It is Val’s desire to share with others the passion he feels for both fly fishing and photography, that enables us to offer people an incredible opportunity to spend the weekend with him at Poronui this year in a photography workshop. For more information on the Poronui Photography weekend with Val, click here.

For more information about Val, visit his website http://www.valatkinson.com