Anthony Naples Photography
Anthony was converted to fly fishing about 22 years ago while attending Penn State University which was bicycling distance from one of Pennsylvania's best wild trout streams. For the last five years, he has been exploring the "unreel" possibilities of tenkara. Like many, when Anthony started with tenkara, he figured it would be a novel way to fish now and then. Inevitably, it quickly took over all of his trout fishing. In the early days of tenkara here in the United States, there wasn't much information available in English. Anglers were just kind of making it up as they went along. Like Ted Leeson says in The Habit of Rivers, "There are a lot of advantages to being self-taught. Quality of instruction is not one of them." One of those many advantages though, according to Anthony, is that when you figure things out for yourself by trial and error, you uncover things that you can't get secondhand. Or at least, you learn what works best for you in your particular fishing situation rather than just trying to shoehorn off-the-shelf ideas. In addition to Anthony's photography, he also has a blog, Casting Around and an online tenkara shop, Three Rivers Tenkara.
About my Photography
Ever since I can remember I have been interested in the overlooked corners of the world. Where I come from, Pittsburgh, PA - there aren't many nearby options for river and big stream trout fishing. The closest wild trout to me are in small, or even tiny streams, streams that you could jump across or walk across in many spots and not have water go over your hiking boots. These streams usually travel in narrow valleys with tight, sometimes nearly impenetrable cover. They are home to brook trout. Many of these trout are small but some can get surprisingly big for the stream. Still a 12-incher would be a trophy. These streams are often overlooked and full of cobwebs. I can fish all year and never come across another angler. They reflect me and I reflect them. The folded origami of southwestern Pennsylvania mountain topography is a landscape of small places. It doesn't have the grandeur of the Rocky Mountain west - but for the observant it is brimming with riches. It is that small and ordinary, but perhaps undervalued world, that I like to highlight in my work.