Harvest Photo Tutorial

Since the season isn’t far off I thought I’d bring this subject up again. It’s not meant to step on any toes but to maybe offer some suggestions and ideas that may not have been considered before by some hunters.

There was a time when I really didn’t care or at least didn’t consider how my harvest photos looked. I’ve got pictures of my deer hanging from the meatpole, laying in the garage, in the back of the pickup and on top of the 4 wheeler. With the advent of political correctness and the anti hunting movement, hunters have had to be more observant of what is offensive to the non hunting public. Hunters have embraced some of the changes as good. Most hunters know better than to ride around with a bloody deer on the hood or to wear their hunting duds in places where it could be offensive. I’m not suggesting these ideas are mandatory since your harvest photos are private. I am however suggesting that you will enjoy them more and those you show them to will also enjoy them more if you take some things into consideration.

I try to take a pic of every deer I shoot. For posterity’s sake I keep a scrap book. One of these days I will be showing it to my grandkids. There may come a day where I will browse them for my own satisfaction and I bet I will be happier with good photos rather than bad.

^ Here’s an embarrassing pic taken a few years before I embraced these ideas. The pic really doesn’t do the deer or the hunt justice. There is blood running down the 4 wheeler, you can’t see the antlers very good, the 4 wheeler imposes on the deer, you can’t see my face very well etc. I’ve got some similar pics of deer on the tailgate, hanging from the meatpole at the club, hanging from the clothesline pole in the backyard etc. In the case of this deer I should have at least pulled it into the yard and posed for a nicer pic.

^ This deer was shot behind my house. It’s a big improvement over the previous pic. My face and my hunting clothes show up well as do the trees and leaves. I went home and got the 4 wheeler and my camera and the pic was taken where the deer fell. This pic is not bad but I should have used a flash to eliminate some of the shadows. The antlers don’t get full representation with the head pointed the way it is. I should have turned the head slightly. I should have also lain my gun on the deer’s chest so that it could be seen better. I could have zoomed closer and used more of the frame. It was taken with a digital camera and I only took one pic.

^ This deer was taken about a mile down the road. Rather than take my camera deep into the cutover I hauled the deer out and staged this photo in the woods behind my house. I took the pic with a flash to illuminate my face. The bow is in a great position and the arrow in my hand adds a nice touch. The camo shows up good and everything is clear. It’s a great photo that really captured the hunt and the harvest. It was taken with a digital camera and even though I took it several times I could have framed it a little better.

^ It was dark by the time I recovered this deer so of course I used a flash. It was taken about 20 yards inside the woods from my truck which was parked on the side of the road. I was hunting about 10 miles from the house. I drug the deer to this point for the pic. It’s framed pretty good. I took many pictures of this deer with my digital camera that night to make sure I got one good one. Getting this pic was fun too. I had to strap the camera to a tree, use a flashlight to illuminate the deer and try to frame it using the LCD screen, then hit the self timer, jump in the pic and pose, wait for the blinding flash, jump up and check the LCD screen to see if it was framed well and do it all over until I had a good one. If I had to do it over again I would reposition the bow to cover up the entrance wound and obscure a little of the blood showing in the white belly hair. I would also move my hand to the base of the antler so the tines would show up better. I’d also include the rattling antlers since this is the first buck I ever harvested by rattling.

^ This pic is of my brother and one of his deer, taken where it fell. This is a pretty good pic but not as clear as the others. Could have been the diminishing light or the limitations of the camera. Maybe the batteries were going down. I think I used a flash. The only thing I might have done different is lay his gun on the deer so it could be seen better.

^ Here’s another of my brother taken in almost the same spot as the one above but the next season. It’s also not as clear but still a decent pic. In retrospect I should have had him change positions so he wouldn’t look so awkward.

^ Another pic of my brother with his biggest deer. He shot it about an hour away and brought it by my house after the hunt. This shot was taken in the corner of my yard. We took many pics until we had one we liked that showed off the antlers well and was framed perfectly. I should have had him put his jacket on and put his gun in the pic.

^ I really like this picture. I normally hunt with a recurve but my son wanted to hunt with me so I took the rifle. It was a very memorable hunt as you can see from the look on his face. I used photo editing software to remove the reflection in the deer's eyes and to remove the tongue before printing it.

^ This is the last deer I have harvested and also my largest with a bow. I shot it after I initially wrote this tutorial. The lesson to be learned from this photo is to compose yourself before you attempt taking pictures. I was very excited and in my haste I forgot to do some things I wanted with the pictures. I had my brother take many pictures of this buck. The antlers look great against the dark backdrop but in retrospect I would have framed it better by moving closer and also tucked the legs under and stood the deer perpindicular which would have hidden the testicles. I also had to remove some anomolies from the picture that resulted from dust or bugs. I've had this happen quite often with pictures like this with a black background.

^ Here is another picture of the same deer. I believe the fog you see in the picture is my brother's condensed breath. That's another anomoly you have to watch out for when taking pictures at night. It has happened more than once to me escpecially with digital cameras. It's an anomoly that is hard to correct with software.

Take a tip from the pro’s, the longer the arms the bigger the fish or buck in this case! Using a wide angle lense and holding the antlers at arms length while taking a close up photo will make your animal look very impressive if not freakish. Be careful with this type of pose though. It can sometimes misrepresent the true size of the animal and lead to speculation about the size. You're probably better off with not using this type of pose. If your deer is big it will be just as impressive without camera tricks.

A few other things to remember. Try to put the tongue back in or move it to the other side of the mouth from the camera. Clean up any blood and place the weapon or a leaf over any bullet/arrow wounds.

The pictures of me were taken with my digital camera and self timer. I used one of these and tied it to a small tree for stability. I use the highest quality capability of the camera so I can make prints but can easily groom them for the net. You can take lotsa pics with a digital camera. That way you can make sure you have a good one. I can also delete any pics on the spot that don’t frame well in order to save memory.

In addition to being more appealing in your scrapbook or on your desk, good harvest photos will appeal to publishers. If you ever did shoot a deer worthy of being published it would be nice to have great field photos to compliment mounted photos. Remember the world record Beatty buck from a few years ago? The pic was taken in the back of a pickup truck with the hunter holding on to the drop tines. I saw untouched photos of this buck and there was a nice grassy area behind the truck. The pic would have looked so much better had he taken the pics there instead. The photo had to be doctored in order to be used on Primos packaging.

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