Photographing Trophy Varmints T


Al Voth


he sun was still a cold yellow ball on the horizon when my new partner pulled the trigger on our first


coyote of the day. He was new to predator hunting so I im- mediately taught him the, “You shoot ’em, you drag ’em,” rule. He took that in stride and once he’d dropped the coyote at my feet I said, ”And now you're going to find out the worst thing about hunting with me.” His face took on a puzzled expression as I let him hang while digging in my backpack. Quickly holding up my camera, I said, ”I take pictures – lots of pictures.” He took that in stride, too, and thought it was pretty cool when his photo showed up in a local hunting magazine. Coyotes like that one and other assorted varmints are


A trophy coyote photograph with everything done wrong.


what I hunt exclusively these days. And even though my game animals are much smaller than the big game my friends hunt, I’m still proud of all my trophies and like to take pictures of what I harvest. However, getting good photographs of my trophies proved difficult for me at first and it took a long time to achieve the quality pictures I was after. From what I see on the Internet and in some magazines, many other varmint hunters have problems getting good photos, too. In the hopes this will shorten someone else’s learning curve, here’s what I’ve learned about photographing those varmint trophies that are special to us. First, don’t get the idea I’m a professional photographer


Adding a rifle helps a little but there’s still too much wrong.


… I’m not. I make part of my income as a writer and photog- raphy supports that endeavor but I've never sold a picture that didn't have a story to go with it. I own two good cameras, and one of those is a point-and-shoot. Both are Nikons and perform wonderfully. There are other good camera brands too, but whenever a fellow hunter asks me what brand to buy, I always point to Nikon. ”Nikon makes top quality gear,” I tell them. ”They share the professional end of the camera market with one other company, but Nikon is the only one that supports hunting and the shooting sports. They make rifle scopes, rangefinders and binoculars for hunters. The other company makes cameras and photocopiers. Your choice.” But whatever camera you do choose, you don’t need pro


The same coyote, but now he’s been posed and the rifle has been placed more carefully. We’re getting there.


Page 50 Spring 2013


equipment to take good photos. Today’s digital cameras are so uniformly excellent that all you need is a basic camera, a desire to produce a quality photo and the willingness to learn. And the first thing you must learn about your camera is where the instruction manual resides. Modern digital cameras have more settings, gee-whiz features and processing power than my first desktop computer … and without a basic grasp of the manual’s contents, you’ll never get further than the AUTO setting. Obviously, I don’t have enough room here to describe the settings of every digital camera on the market. Rest assured, though, that every setting I talk about in the following narrative is available on virtually all cameras. That previously mentioned instruction manual, a seminar at your local camera store or even an on-line course will quickly show you where and how to operate that digital marvel you carry in your pocket on every hunt.


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