Hunting Photos

[Guy Miner]

Some thoughts - and I hope others will jump in here and add to the discussion.

I've been hunting almost my entire life. Early memories of being out in the duck blind with Grandpa & Dad when I was 5 years old! Started handloading about the same time. But - there are almost NO photos of those wonderful early hunts with family and friends. I had a few different little Kodak cameras as a kid, easy enough to carry around, but the photos were marginal.

Even when the shutter bug bit me in the 1970's and I got my first decent 35mm camera, I rarely carried it on hunts. Just too bulky, and apparently in my mind, too much trouble, to carry along on the hunts. Sometimes I did, but not often. Eventually I went through a series of 35mm cameras - took some good photos, but each of them eventually died an ugly death. The result of me hauling them along with me outdoors on hiking, mountain climbing, skiing and sailing trips.. Sigh.. They did give me some good photos though. But... even with 36 exposure rolls, and slide film, processing was expensive.

Maybe 12 years or so ago, I got my first digital camera. Huh. Liked it. It was a bit bulky, and could only take a few photos before filling the memory, but I could take photos easily and share them. After a couple of years of limping along with it, I got a better camera, a small Canon "pocket camera" and dang, I went crazy with it! Small enough to carry in a jacket pocket, and it actually took pretty good photos. Cool. I still use that camera a LOT when I'm camping, hiking and hunting. So easy to bring with.

Two years ago, Mama bought me a pretty nice semi-compact digital camera with a pretty fair telephoto lens as a retirement gift. Wow... It's wonderful! Two years later, I still don't know how to use all the features, but have had a blast taking wildlife photos with it.

Even more important than the camera, is just using it! I see more and more of us posting photos of our hunts. Photos of our kids hunting. That's great! I post 'em here. I save 'em at home. I get them printed out and hang them on the walls! Made a great photo-poster of memorable hunts for my son a couple of years ago - included both of his bears along with some of his deer. He loves it.

Some photo tips in a bit... And feel free to jump in here!

Guy

 

[Guy Miner]

For hunting "trophy" photos - one bit of advice I can offer is - take your time! Prep the photo. You want a photo that your family and friends will enjoy seeing. So... create it!

These are things I've done, learned them from others. It helps:

Haul your animal around a bit, so that it's not in some convoluted, crazy, tangled up position, half covered with branches & mud, and wedged between a couple of rocks. Yeah, that can make an interesting photo too - but - to show everyone, and make a photo you'll be happy with years later, drag that beast out into a nice setting.

Tuck the legs up under.

Wipe the worst of the blood off the mouth & nose. Big ol' gobs of nasty lung blood with chunks in it... Just doesn't look nice in the photos.

Consider even plugging the nose of your animal, with some rolled up tissue paper... Learned this a few years ago from a bear hunter I was with. Made my son's bear look much better after we wiped the blood off the muzzle and plugged up his nostrils. Good lung shot though John!

The tongue... Really? You want that danged tongue hanging out the side of your trophy buck's mouth? Like it that much? Then have the taxidermist mount it that way... Ha! Tuck the tongue back in the mouth, or even cut it off. Close the mouth on your buck or bull. Maybe on a wild boar or a bear, you want the mouth open to show the big scary teeth... Maybe...

Don't do the fisherman's trick of sitting 5' behind your animal, trying to make it look bigger. It is what it is. I've happily photographed barely legal 3x3 bucks, and have also been happy to be right there with nice big trophy animals. They all please me. Each is a successful hunt.

Look at the background. The outhouse, gut pile, or a beat-up truck may not be what you want in the background.

Watch the lighting. Glaring bright sun and contrasting dark shadows can lead to some parts of your photo being over-exposed, or under-exposed.

Take off your hat! People want to see your smiling face. Well, maybe they do. Getting rid of the hat helps with that by getting a shadow off your face.

Take a LOT of photos. With the digital cameras, we can take a hundred photos, and then cherry pick the four or five that look good.

Guy

 

[6mm Remington]

Take a LOT of pictures. No reason not to!!! From those you should at least have a few good ones to keep. Excellent post Guy.

 

[Guy Miner]

Hunting a beautiful area? Share it with us! A lot of landscape photos do a poor job of showing the terrain, the natural beauty. It's right there - we can see it with our eyes - but it can be tough to capture it in a photo. I took this on a backpack hunt here in my local Entiat Mountains a few years ago. It captures the rugged nature of those mountains well:


I only snapped a few photos of my late season mule deer hunt last December, but thought that this one showed the cold, stark country of central Washington in winter:


One of my better "trophy" photos. Taken while I was resting, dragging this buck down to a trail. I sat down to rest, looked over and liked the way the light was hitting the buck and the surrounding vegetation. Used a stick to prop up his head, put the rifle across him and took a few photos. You can just see the stick, behind the rifle. This one turned out best. It ended up being used in a Berger Bullet ad! I was pleased with that. Not the biggest buck, a 26" 4x4, but a good, representative mulie. His antlers are hanging in my loading room, but honestly, I like this photo at least as much as the european mount:


My son's first bear, 2010. This one we took a fair bit of time on. Wiped blood off his muzzle. Plugged the nostrils with rolled up tissue paper to stop the bleeding. Propped up his head a bit on that rock. Hauled him out into the sunlight, where his beautiful "chocolate" color really shows. John was a bit "stiff" in the photo, but his happiness at his first bear shows through anyway:


His second bear was bigger, and just as pretty, but the shaded area doesn't show the beauty of the hide as well, making him look almost black. John is snugged up close to the bear, so as to not exaggerate the size of the bear. It's a Washington black bear, not a Kodiak! John wanted the rifle in the photo - he's real proud of that nearly 100 year old .30-06 and shoots it well:


Not my best buck, but the result of several days of hunting in Wyoming. Tony helped me drag the buck into a good spot, then we tucked the legs up under, and he took his time with both his camera and my camera. Tony did a good job of showing the antlers against the sky. I was smart enough to remove my hat for the early morning photo, so you guys can see my mug!

 

[bdbrown66]

Well done, sir! Good advice all around.

Just curious...what kind of camera are you using these days?

 

[bdbrown66]

I've posted it before, but here's a shot of the buck I got last fall. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon on opening day, sun was starting to get a bit low in the sky. Long shadows and diffuse light are evident. I took this shot before I started field dressing him, so no blood, etc. Just laid the rifle across his rack.

 

[Guy Miner]

Take some photos of the rest of the hunt. Time around the campfire. On the trail. Of your buddies. They help tell the tale. It's not just the trophy. It's really about the hunt... At least for me.

I don't often hunt from horseback, so I treasure this photo and one more, that my friend Rick took of me on an elk hunt in the Wind River Mountains. See? I can ride a horse!




John is famous for his mid-morning nap on our hunts. I couldn't resist:


Packing out a mule deer, Wyoming. This is a common thing "out west" but foreign to many of my friends who hunt mostly "back east." Boning out a buck, and hiking out with him in a backpack is normal out here, in the mountains, where only feet and hooves go. No ATV's, no farm tractors, no Jeeps or trucks. And it's worth showing. I think this is the only pack-out photo I've ever taken though!


See a beautiful sunrise right in front of you? Think about bringing that camera out and capturing it.


Hunts for small game deserve photos too. This was a great day with my son last season:


Dogs... Can be DIFFICULT to capture in a photo. Hunting dogs do seem to present their own set of problems for a photographer. I've taken hundreds of photos of ol' Clark, and only have a few that are worth even sharing - and - I'm still learning to take photos of him afield. Much easier when he's relaxed, tired, at home. Out in the field? Non-stop hunting action...


Dog butt. Dog ears flapping. Dog tongue hanging out. Dog blur as he moves... Sigh... Still working on it.

Okay, I'm done.

Guy

 

[Guy Miner]

BDBrown - I use three cameras:

1. Cell phone, my iPhone has a decent camera, and it's so compact and easy to carry that I often simply rely on it. The cell phone cameras can take decent photos.

2. Canon compact "pocket camera." SD890 IS. I've had it for years, and it's still my favorite for hunting & fishing trips because it takes a pretty good photo and is so easy to carry along.

3. Mama treated me to a nicer camera two years ago, and I use it a fair bit, particularly for wildlife photography. It's an Olympus PEN mini, E-PM2, with a pair of lenses, a 14-42mm and a 75-300mm. This is the camera I'm still learning. It does a LOT. I use a little of it.

Really like your buck & rifle photo. Shows off the rifle very well - and YES - taking the photos before field dressing helps make a cleaner, nicer photo...

Guy

 

[JD338]

Great tips fellas!

JD338

 

[IdahoCTD]

I do need to take more pictures. Cell phones have definitely made that a lot easier now days. There is a discussion about packing meat on or off the bone on LRH right now. So I'm going to try and take pictures of boning out my wife's and dad's elk in about 10 days to try and show the process. We have to bone them out just due to the extremely hot temps this time of year. Last year was 95* and this year is suppose to be 97* on opening day.

Guy,

Do you, or anyone else for that matter, know much about the Nikon P900? I have never carried my spotting scopes much but have been trying to take pictures through my rifle scopes the last few years with my cell phone. The Nikon has a 83x optical zoom plus you can shoot videos so I was thinking about selling one of my spotting scopes and picking one up. I think it would be a great way to not only spot game but also to take long distance videos and pictures. The picture quality looks pretty good and the weight isn't bad at about 2lbs. Most good spotting scopes are heavier then that. They also have a P610 which is 60x optical zoom and about 150.00 cheaper. I'd love to do some good hunt videos and pictures this year, especially our Coues deer hunt.

 

[Guy Miner]

I don't know anything about that particular spotting scope.

 

[IdahoCTD]

Guy,

It's a camera that I want to use as a spotting scope and for videos and pictures.

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-produc ... -p900.html

 

[DrMike]

Great thread. Tragically, I have few photos from earlier years of hunting/fishing. Those I do have are showing their age as colour fades or loses distinctive differentials.

 

[bbearhntr]

Great topic. Cheer up and smile in those pictures. ENJOY the outdoors. :grin:

 

[Guy Miner]

Great topic. Cheer up and smile in those pictures. ENJOY the outdoors. :grin:

Those are rather gleeful images of me. :mrgreen: Am actually smiling on the horse. 'Cause I had not yet fallen off that day... The others are what passes for my "I'm satisfied and content with things" look. It's a smile. For me.

A conversation between jurors was reported to me after a trial was over. I was the arresting detective, of a rape suspect. To this day, I'm surprised that they let one of my son's school teachers stay on the jury! But they did. She told me later that there had been some discussion of how stern and intimidating I looked, and how that must have frightened the poor suspect into confessing. She apparently told them "Oh, he always looks that way, even when he's having fun!" I smiled at that too.

Regards, Guy

 

[Fourtyonesix]

I've always had some pet peeves with kill
Photos.

Holding deer antlers....ugh drives me nuts! Not much there don't cover it up!!
Sitting on animals....it's not a ride at the fair.
Strange out of place objects under animals heads...don't stack firewood under a bears face then sit behind it your just making firewood look huge!
Dead animals in truck beds....it's ok to be redneck. But in the truck?! Really?
Guns on animals or in antlers. Distracts from the animal, unless it's a photo specifically about the weapon. If it's about the animal leave the guns out. Or hold them in your hands.

Just a few things that personally I don't care for. Others may love them and that's ok, but as a guide photos are the second trophy and MY only trophy from the hunt.

 

[Guy Miner]

Jake - the hunting & fishing trip photos are important to me. A buddy I've fished the silver run with quite a few times, out of Cordova, thinks it's funny that I'll stop fishing, and take photos of the four of us, casting, fighting fish, landing fish, skirting around bears... All that good stuff.

But he sure likes it when I e-mail him the photos afterwards.

I think it's important to take decent photos of a hunt, a fishing trip, or even just a ramble through the hills. Sure helps share the memories and keep the memories.

Regards, Guy

 

[bbearhntr]

Guy, I didn't mean to sound accusational in my post. My apologies. I see so many photos in different magazines where the hunter looks mad that they harvested game.

 

[Guy Miner]

Guy, I didn't mean to sound accusational in my post. My apologies. I see so many photos in different magazines where the hunter looks mad that they harvested game.

Oh, not at all. I'm pretty easy-going. My smile is often, not much more than a bit of a grin. My wonderful wife said I smile more with my eyes than with my mouth. She oughta know.

Guy

 

[Fourtyonesix]

For sure guy! I love non trophy photos of hunts. I was referring to trophy photos when I was speaking of my pet peeves.