11.24.2016

The Parmachene Belle: A Slip-Wing Variation of this Classic Fishing Fly


This variation of the original Parmachene Belle is a slip-wing style tied by my friend Alberto, using a recipe found in the fly-tying book Forgotten Flies by Paul Schmookler.

Apparently, the original pattern goes back to the mid-1870's and is named after Parmachene Lake in Maine. It was designed to imitate the fin of a small brook trout. (From Terry Hellekson's book Fish Flies.)

Photo technique:

For this image, I used the focus stacking feature available with my Olympus E-M1 camera and 60mm Olympus macro lens.

This feature results in eight images focused at different distances (think of a CAT scan) and then the sharpest areas of each image are combined in-camera to give the result you see here.  The combining process takes just a few seconds.  Otherwise, it would take a considerable amount of time (15 minutes perhaps) to do this by hand with any of the several software programs available, including Photoshop.

The result is essentially an increased depth of field. Think of the process as combining eight images captured at eight focusing distances at 1mm increments.


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