Photo gripes!

[JPH]

To begin with, I am not directing this at ANYONE! It is more of a general rant re. photos that appear commonly. These are just things that get under my skin a little, so I'm just venting. I suspect I am not alone here but take it with a grain of salt.

JPH's random gripes re. photos of deer kills:

Bed of the pickup photos. Don't get me wrong, they can be done tastefully, but they usually are not. If a deer looks matted, full of rigor, and shoved up against the wheel well, put it in the grass and clean it up a little.

Garage floor photos. As bad, if not worse than the bed of the truck photo. Again, just put him out in the grass for a few seconds.

Caped out deer head photos. Please post photos of your big buck before you cape him out. A head in a bucket is not a good look.

Giant photos. If you post a photo and it takes up more that what the screen can accommodate, remove the photo and re-size it. It is easy: http://forum.deeranddeerhunting.com/tm.aspx?m=34161

Tongues hanging out. Take a second to make certain that the tongue is squeezed into the mouth before you take the pic.

Excessive blood. I may seem like I'm being a sissy here, but a gory photo is not the way most of us want to remember a hunt. I don't know about you, but I like to remember what the deer looked like before I shot it. Carry a few paper towels with your camera to wipe away the blood.

The "one and done" photo. I think this one is my biggest gripe. That is the guy who never posts on the board but logs on one time, just to show off a big buck, then never comes back. Guess what, photos of big deer are a dime a dozen. Stick around and be a part of our community. I would rather see a pic of a doe, taken by someone I "know" from the forum, accompanied by a story, than a one and done monster buck photo.

And before anyone calls me on it, yes I have broken most of the above here "rules" myself. For example, last year a friend of mine who does not post here shot a record class NT. I posted back of the truck camera phone photos of his frozen carcass. I'm not perfect and sometimes my photos are crappy, but I'm cooped up with an injury and can't even shoot my bow. I guess I'm just cranky.

[69Viking]

JPH I think this is a great post. This for me serves as a reminder when you are caught up in the excitement of the hunt and then take pictures to make sure they are tasteful. This is one of the things taught in hunter safety classes so this is a good reminder for all of us. I plan to remind my son of these suggestions too as he attended the hunter safety class with me. As hunters we have to remember that non-hunters will see our pictures and our pictures may help determine whether they remain non-hunters who support hunters or become anti-hunters which none of us want to see happen. Great post!

On a side note I hope you are recovering from your latest injury and will be recovered in time for when you want to start hunting. I know it has to be tough but hang in there.

[vipermann7]

Thanks for the photo resize link. I've been searching for how to resize photos, but I'm not computer savvy and know nothing about it. I post huge photos, but I hate them, can't stand it, but don't know how to do it. I followed the link you posted, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[Cut N Run]

Thanks for the great post JPH. Hope your injury heals rapidly and painlessly.  I haven't been able to draw my bow since April of 2007...sucks, don't it?
 
 
 Yours are all valid points that drive me equally crazy.
 
 I hate seeing success pictures taken with little or no forethought.  I remember seeing one of two guys holding up a turkey and they were both standing there in camo britches with white T-shirts on behind the bed of the truck with both truck doors still standing wide open, like they told somebody to "Quick, go get the camera".  You are going to have that image as a reminder of your hunt for the rest of your life, take a bit of time to compose it for better effect. Take a little time to get set up in an area of good light or with a nice natural background.  I hunt alone quite often and take a tripod along for my camera.  With digital cameras, you don't have to pay to develop film to get a look at your picture.  So,take way more pictures than you think you'll need. Some of them will be better than others, so try for the best you can & delete the ones not worth saving. Once that moment is gone, you will never get it back, so you might as well preserve it as best you can.
 
One of my pet peeves are pictures taken in the garage with the lighting on the subject coming from the headlights of the vehicle just outside the garage. Most cameras can be adjusted to take low light pictures. Just adjust the f-stop or slow the film speed. Many point & shoot cameras have that as an automatic setting. A better effort should give much better results.
 
You didn't take that fine game animal on your lawn by the flowerbed (or, most people don't anyway), so why have it photographed there?
 
One of my biggest bucks was recorded in a truckbed picture and each time I look at it, I think of what a beautiful animal it was and it came from such a lovely setting. All that picture shows a dead deer in the back of a truck on pavement, no more, no less. I hate I didn't have the camera with me at the time and didn't take the time to make the picture as good as possible.
 
Shoot pictures like they are going to be featured in a national magazine that you want everybody to see. In the long run, you'll be glad you did.
 
Jim 

[dewey]

Well said JPH. I think those photos of a buck hanging upside down from a garage rafter are terrible. I try to make sure I get atleast 6 good phtos of the deer (buck or doe) and the turkeys I harvest. I have and will always take a picture of the deer that I shoot no matter how big they are and then I will try and put a good story behind it. My goal is somebody reading my story can say relate to my hunting story and become partially as excited as I was.

Dewey

[OHhunter]

Great post JPH, I keep our old Digital Camera, a small tripod and a container of wet wipes in my Jeep so that I can get pictures in the field hopefully a short distance from where I shot it. If that doesn't work out I take pictures in the woods around my Dad's house.

[JPH]

I'm really glad my post did not come off as mean spirited. Again, my photo book has examples of all the bad things I listed and more. Live and learn.

Now, like others, I have a digital camera, tripod, and wipes in a bag in my vehicle right next to a kit I have set up for tracking and field dressing. While many hunters sit in the stand for an hour after the shot, I find it too hard to sit still. I will quietly slip out and walk back to the truck, get a sip from the thermos and gather my photo and tracking kits. It gives the deer time to lay up and die and it allows me to take good photos at the sight of the recovery.

[reeper0697]

I guess my biggest picture pet peeve is when people stand 6ft behind the animal to make it look bigger than it really is.

[Goose]

Great post JPH! I agree with ya.

[MoDeer]

You caught me I confess my picture was to big . As soon as one of the kids come home I will try to learn how to post a smaller picture.I could not agree more that people could do a better job of taking a tasteful photo but the one that really gripes me is the deer on top of the roof or propped up sticking out of the bed while going down the highway for all the antis to see . they are fueling a fire that doesnt need help.