Thinking of a few important details can help make sure your photo of your harvest shows respect for the animal and the experience.

By Gerald Almy

Photos by Gerald Almy

Are you proud of that buck you shot after long days of scouting, patterning his behavior, and waiting on stand? Or maybe a particularly large doe, or a 3-year old gobbler with long spurs and a thick bushy beard? Chances are good you are proud, or you wouldn’t pull out your camera and start taking photos of the hard-earned game you took, and probably posting them on social media or sharing with friends on your phone.

If you’re proud of being a hunter and meeting the challenge of harvesting that animal, it’s ideal to show the quarry the respect it deserves as a wild creature that you had a meaningful experience with. That can be demonstrated in the way you treat the animal and the food its meat will provide, and how you display it by taking dignified, tasteful photos. Most people want to show a gamebird or deer they harvest that respect, but some just don’t know about a few simple steps to take and rules you should follow that will ensure dignified, respectful photographs of the hunter and his or her quarry.

Having done this for many years as an outdoor writer/photographer, when having attractive images of the hunter and his quarry might mean the difference between an article sale and a rejection slip, I’ve learned a few tricks. I’ve also picked up many others from fellow hunters and photographers who had a knack for capturing a tasteful, engaging pictures of a hunter and his deer or turkey. Here are a few guidelines.

Safety Precautions

It’s a terrible thought to make it through a long, challenging hunt and then get injured while taking photos. But it happens every year. In the desire to get a great photo, caution is sometimes forgotten. That can be a costly mistake, potentially very costly.

• ALWAYS unload your firearm immediately after game has been harvested and the hunt is finished.
• Convey safe practices in pictures by never pointing a firearm or crossbow at yourself or another person in the photo or allowing it to look like it is, even if its unloaded.
• If you take an image of a hunter in a tree-stand, make sure that person has a full-body harness attached to the tree with a tether or lifeline.
• Don’t photograph a hunter in a rickety or decayed-looking wooden stand.
• Make sure hands and fingers are in safe positions when handling a crossbow in a photo.
• If you are showing a drive being conducted with hunters walking through a field or woods, make sure they are side-by-side and some aren’t in front of others.
• If you are photographing a turkey with a spread fan, make sure other hunters are not in the immediate area or set out some blaze orange near your position.

Follow these tips and you should get photos that will make both you and all hunters proud.

Gerald Almy lives in the Shenandoah Valley but travels widely for his work as a full-time outdoor writer. He is currently a columnist for Sports Afield and a contributing editor for Field & Stream.