The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.*** - Self-Takes and Shag-Bags

Two weeks in like many I'm going stir-crazy, the days becoming repetitive, the routine of home schooling, walking for exercise and plundering the pottering its Groundhog Day. Yesterday things got that bad I cleaned the garage floor, the highlight I discovered some of the biggest spiders and cobwebs ever to be seen in the Newey household.

I'm lucky though because during the week working from home as an automotive design engineer is a Godsend. I can hide myself away in the office with the Skullcandy Crushers donned, the Mixcloud app opened on the iPhone, "What has been uploaded today then ?"

CATIA fired up, beats good, head down, mouse moved, buttons clicked, boss happy. I really did struggle yesterday though, the reality hit home big time, I want to go fishing but I cannot.

Phones are effectively computers these days, now used for all manner of things, speaking to people secondary to the main use. Now my iPhone 7 max I've had for a while now, the camera still pretty good and I've resisted an upgrade and it's used for the majority of pictures on my bumbling blog.

I use it for all the self-takes as well, a cheapo phone mount bought off Ebay fitted with a bankstick adapter providing a nice secure mount which you need if you are to take decent pictures.

The front camera on the phone good enough to get decent pictures when you find yourself having to do the duties when a decent fishing is caught. No third party to make sure your noggin is in the frame, the screen can do that for you.

Switch to the 10 second timer within the camera app, jobs a good'un. The phone also home to a fiver because a certain stretch I fish from time to time is leased by a club, a day ticket available if the bailiff turns up.

The front flash on the iPhone, well mine anyway is effectively the screen itself which goes really bright and vibrant the same time as the picture is taken. It's 'ok' but not brilliant. I certainly wouldn't want to take a trophy picture of a 16lb Barbel on it.

For those eventualities I've a simple battery powered LED light that offers just the right amount of light that simply screws on to the male to male adapter.

10 pictures are taken when you use the 10 second timer so you can choose the best picture from them. I've not used the video still capture myself, but I know that is another option that could well work for you. If you're a solo solitude seeker like me and fish on your own, self-takes are not hard to achieve.