The Camera's Eye

I love hunting, but not always with a gun. Sometimes I just take my camera. You see more with a camera than you do with a shotgun. When I have a gun in my hand, all I really see is the dog and the bird. It’s a bit like looking at the world through a straw. With a camera, I see everything.

Don’t get me wrong. I love hunting the same as you do. But the gunning part is just that. Part of it. I have a number of friends who hunt just for their dogs, not really for themselves. They enjoy hunting just as much as the man who hunts for the table or the trophy. We are blessed that our sport is so rewarding on so many levels.

There are two general ways of taking a camera afield. The first is to bring it along in addition to the gun. This is perfect for stopping to take a few photos of friends and game before and after actual hunting.

For this sort of work, a small pocket camera is probably best. I use a little digital camera that is no larger than a pack of cigarettes. It fits in any pocket, weighs nothing and takes surprisingly good photos. There are dozens of great small digital cameras that would do a good job. My current favorite is the Canon Elph 870 IS, with its 28-to-105mm-equivalent lens. Unlike most of the other little cameras, it has a good wide-angle option that does a great job on those scenic shots.

The other way of photographing hunting is to set the gun aside for a few hours and take a more versatile camera with you. Without a gun in your hand, you will be able to concentrate more on the photos. You’ll see more because you can look around more.

For this kind of work, I prefer a digital SLR (single lens reflex) because 1) it has a larger sensor to take more finely detailed photos and 2) it has more adjustments to accommodate the shooting conditions. Currently, I like the Nikons, because Nikon makes an amazing 18-to-200mm lens and none of the other camera makers have that. Well, until last week when Canon finally announced its own version of a stabilized 18-to-200. With the multiplier effect of the APS-sized sensor on most digital SLRs, these lenses are the 35mm equivalent of 27-to-300mm. That’s a pretty good wide-angle to a pretty good telephoto. It’s the only lens you ever need for general photos, so you don’t have to be lugging around a bunch of extra glass in the field. The downsides of a rig like this are size and weight. It fits nicely into a small fanny pack but not into a coat pocket.

A few Websites that have good camera information are:
www.dcresource.com
www.dpreview.com
www.kenrockwell.com
www.steves-digicams.com
www.imaging-resource.com

Photography, like shooting, depends more on skill than equipment. Terry Allen or Clair Kofoed could take fantastic photos with a disposable camera. I need all the help I can get. From the looks of some of the photos in our Image Gallery (www.shootingsportsman.com/galleries), many of you really have the knack when it comes to hunting photos. There are some great shots here.

Considering my skill level with a camera, I’m more in the position of taking advice than giving it. Still, I’ll pass along a couple of ideas that have helped me.
A) Actually bring a camera with you. That Nikon in the truck won’t be much good when you get that once-in-a-lifetime shot in the field.
B) Take a ton of photos at all sorts of different settings and photo angles. With digital cameras, the incremental cost of each shot is zero. Experiment with forced flash and other settings. If you take enough pictures, something is bound to turn out amazingly well.
C) Fool around with one of the post-processing computer programs. PhotoShop is a professional brute with a vertical learning curve, but there are lots of other smaller programs that are easy to use for basic photo work. Picasa (http://picasa.google.com) is surprisingly useful for touching up photos and organizing them. It’s free, too. Do you have any advice you can add?

And don’t forget to share your photos with us in the Image Gallery. Even if we can’t hunt every day, we always can enjoy hunting photos from our friends.

“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” —Ansel Adams

That’s it for now. Boots off. Beer open.