Taking Photos of Your Coues Buck

[Red Rabbit]

Taking Trophy Photos of Your Coues Buck

 

You have spent months preparing for the hunt. Spend just a few extra minutes to take some quality trophy shots to preserve the moment.

 

You want to feature the animal and you, the hunter, in a pleasing manner. Mostly, you will want to showcase your trophy, so get him prepared.

 

 

Prepping the animal:

 

Move the deer to where you want to take the photo. Atop a small rise will allow him to be skylined in a photo taken with a slight upward angle. Consider any background you may want in the photo.

 

Wipe off any blood around the mouth, nose and body. Use water, TP, or carry some Wet Wipes for this purpose. You may need to put some toweling way up the nose so it doesn't show to stop any blood drainage. Wiping the bloody areas with dirt and brushing the dirt off may help. Cover any visible wound with foliage or rocks, or turn the animal so the exit wound is on the off-side.

 

Tuck the tongue back in the mouth, or use your knife and cut it off.

 

Fold and tuck the legs under the body and keep the animal upright, not laying on its side.

 

Cover any blood on the ground that will be in the photo with dirt, rocks, grass.

 

 

Body Positioning:

 

Having the antlers show against the sky or clouds will highlight them. Antlers will also show up well against a grassy hill. Don't choose a tree for a background whose branches will camouflage the antlers. You will most likely want the deer's body sideways to the camera.

 

You can sit behind the deer so only your upper torso is visible, or sit next to the buck's head. Sit with your legs folded and tucked also, rather than sprawled.

To highlight the antlers and put focus on the deer, have your head below the antler tops or the same height as the deer head.

You can have equal billing with the deer if you have your head even with the antlers.

 

You can enhance the size of the antlers and head by sitting further back behind the body, and using a closely placed camera with a wide angle and high f-stop setting (ala Chuck Adams).

 

Having the head pointed directly at the camera will accentuate the rack's width, but may hide some points. A slight quartering turn will show the points better. Have the head level or tilted down slightly. Having the head tilted back will hide the rack and make one look up the nasal passages.

 

Hold the deer's head up with one gentle hand. If possible, hold behind the neck or offside jaw base to hide your hand, or under base of the chin. Try not to have a mangle hold on the antler beams.

 

Remember the rule of thirds. Don't center the deer exactly in the center of the photo.

 

Smile! Look at the camera or admire the deer.

 

 

Camera Positioning:

 

The camera should be near eye level with the deer. Have the photographer kneel or lie low, or use a tripod.

 

Taking photos from above the deer and hunter, with the photographer standing, diminishes the stature of you and the deer. Too much of an upward angle by taking the picture from well below is undesirable also.

 

 

Lighting:

 

Morning or evening lighting provides great lighting for warmth, color and detail. Midday sunlight gives poorer colors, harsher shadows and will wash out detail. Use a fill flash during midday. A polarizing filter will help eliminate glare that hides color and detail, and make the sky appear a darker blue.

 

A fill flash will help illuminate the shadows in the deer's and your faces. Tilt your cap back a little to help eliminate shadows. The flash will make the deer's eyes glow bluish green. A set of glass eyes from a taxidermist or a piece of electrical tape will stop this possessed look. A fill flash in the middle of the day will also highlight you and the deer by illuminating you. Take some photos both with and without a flash.

 

Be sure the sun is not casting any shadows from the antlers across your face, or your shadow upon the deer's head. Be aware of the shadow cast by the photographer or tripod.

 

Camera Settings:

 

Using the aperture priority mode, set the aperture to a low f-stop, like 2.8 Or use the portrait setting which usually chooses a wide aperture. This will give a shallower depth of field. The background and foreground will be out of focus, and this will draw the viewer to the sharply focused deer and you.

 

Choosing a high f-stop like f-16 will give a greater depth of field and allow both the deer and background to remain in focus.

 

Focus the camera on the deer's eyes, as you would on a person's eyes for a portrait shot. Zoom in so you and the deer fill the frame. You can crop excess fore and background and then enlarge on the computer, but photo quality will be sacrificed.

 

Set the digital camera's picture quality to its highest setting. If you are still using film, choose a film with a low ASA like 64 or 100 for finer detail, better color saturation, and less grain.

 

Use a partial flash setting, rather than a full flash setting if you can, so detail and color are not washed out. The flash is to just fill in the shadows.

 

Use a polarizing filter to reduce glare and enhance colors.

 

Use a tripod to get a steady camera.

 

Use a remote shutter to allow you to have the proper position. A self timer may not give but a few seconds to scurry into place.

 

Utilize the white balance setting to match the sun, shade, clouds or snow.

 

 

Other Tips:

 

Remove blaze orange as it will mess with exposures and the bright color will attract the photo viewer's attention away from the deer.

 

Pull or bend over any grass that sticks up in the way between the camera and your and the deer's heads. Bend down next to the camera and look for obstructions.

 

If you forgot your camera in your pack, or had no time right before nightfall, set the deer up outside of camp the next morning and take some good photos. A head and cape on a rock or log can still make a good photo.

 

To highlight your rifle, hold it in your hands, across your arm, or lay it against the deer's body. Don't have the muzzle pointing at you, even if it is unloaded (and it should be at this point). Don't lay the rifle across the antlers like in a gun rack.

 

Please, no tailgates, tree hangings, garage floors, hanging tongues, or blood. Don't sit on the animal.

 

Look at various quality hunting magazines like Eastmans, Muley Crazy, Trophy Hunter and look at the good and the bad of photos and get some ideas.

[coueshunter]

Doug, great tips. Are you a photographer? If so, send Amanda a note if you would be interested in being a presenter at the ADA deer clinic. I just spoke via email with Kevin Harris the ADA president and they are in need of a speaker for "Photography" for the deer clinic. They have Duwane Adams speaking on Muley/Coues hunting, S.W. meats for game processing-(Mike Miller I think) and Leonard Ordaway from the game dept. but they are still in need of a Photographer so maybe you could give this presentation?????

Think about it and send me or Amanda an email and we will get you in touch. Thanks again for this info, it is very important.............Allen Taylor............

[COUESAZ]

Great info. We saw some great photos after the hunts last year in the contest. from your tips on photgraphing your kill.

[DEERSLAM]

Great tips for everyone to follow. I've seen so many bad pics, excessive blood, tongue hanging out, rifle across the rack and my pet peeve, the rifle pointing at the hunter.

Hope to see some awesome pics no matter the size of the trophy

[Red Rabbit]

Allen,

 

I am just a guy who likes to take photos, and sometimes takes the time to squeeze the shutter. Have never been a professional photographer.

 

Back in the 80's, I would go to Glacier and Jellystone, mainly to flyfish, and took lots of slides on hikes. Read a few how-to books. Just try to keep an open eye.

 

Tony Mandile has posted some photos that make mine pale.

 

Amanda had asked me to write something up about how to take trophy photos for the contest.

 

Doug~RR

[BASS]

Great write up! I think we might want to make this a sticky for this page to so that it isn't lost. Plenty of good info that tends to get lost in the excitment.

[Lance]

Hey! Did you read our TLO-"Guide to Trophy Field Photos"? Just kidden with you, but you just about covered everything on our flier that we give to our hunters. Good for you. It's good to know that the word of good picture taking is getting arround the hunting world! Not many pay attention to it and it's too bad that these great memories and photo oppertunities are slipping by.

 

Quote...."Few people will get to see your actual animal in person and fewer will get to see your hunt. This leaves pictures as the best and easiest way to share and honor your trophy!"

 

Lance

[tjhunt2]

Doug, thanks for the tips. Everyone should print them out and put them away for future use. I have taken hundreds of photos over the years and take a lttle pride in getting someone a great picture but I have my share of not so good photos. The new digital cameras sure have improved everyones ability to view and retake. Most of my experience, with myself and watching others, is everyone seems to get in a hurry. How many times have you heard " we'll get pictures later". Most of my hunting partners can spend hours glassing and stalking to harvest an animal only to find the most difficult task of all is to move a few feet for me to take better pictures by saying " just take the dang picture". Thanks again for the reminder Doug. TJ

[Red Rabbit]

Coues7 mentioned this thread on MM as a good read and view with good example photos on how the kill photos were improved with just a little effort.

http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID21/2953.html

[Rembrant]

This thread is full of great tips. Job well done Doug.

I have one more; maybe some people can think about not sitting as far back behind the animal as possible to get the photo perspective of the animal being bigger than it really is. This doesn't fool anyone who's been around a while. If the animal's actual size isn't big enough for an honest use of perspective, then maybe it shouldn't have been harvested.

If I ever kill another animal, I think I'll sit in front of it, and to the side a little so I can look back at it - just to allow a little ballance in the world.

Mike

[Bird Dog]

Yea a little balance in life....like bigger isn't always better because any deer or animal is a trophy because it was a surviver since birth and not to forget the stock, the shot, a clean kill, and most important the friends/family that shared a remarkable experience with the hunter. Who cares about the size but that a photo was taken well. I think we all can improve. Thanks Doug!

[Red Rabbit]

These photos from the contest show something pleasingly different than the standard sit-behind-the-deer photo.

 

The above photograph, which received an honorable mention, has the hunter looking at the deer, which transfers viewer focus to the deer. It also adds an element of emotion above a standard posed photo. The photo should be cropped though to eliminate some excess background and foreground.

 

[KiLLAcOuEs]

My sister Rebekah taking here first Coues Deer in 36A from 110 yards standing with no rest with a .243

[Chef]

Congratulations to your sister.

Pretty buck. You may want to start a new thread with the story. (?)

[azslim]

a short chunk of monofilament line works to tie a mouth closed if necessary