Taking Trophy Bowfishing Pictures

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When you go out hunting or bowfishing, what do you come away with after you’ve harvested your animal?  Of course you take away the meat and the animal itself, but how can you preserve those memories as they happened?  The number one thing you can do is take good pictures.

I’ve been in the outdoor industry for a long time and been fortunate enough to hunt and bowfish all over the country and take a lot of different animals.  I’ve learned a few tricks along the way for taking great pictures and wanted to share those.

For hunting here are a couple of good articles that pretty much cover it.

http://www.bowhuntingmag.com/2011/07/29/taking-better-hunting-trophy-photos/

http://huntersandguidesconnection.com/blog/hunt-planning/ten-tips-for-taking-trophy-photos/

Here’s a few of the main points to cover.

  • Clean up the animal.  In today’s politically correct world (which I hate) and the way information is easily accessed, just think about the presentation of the animal to the non-hunter.
  • If you’re serious about it, get a good camera.  A good DSLR camera can be purchased for less than $500 and makes a huge difference.  Cell phone cameras have come a long way but have no where near the quality of a good digital camera.  They will work in a pinch, but like I said if you’re serious about it a good DSLR camera is a worthwhile investment.  They are much more user friendly nowadays as well.
  • Get the camera low to the ground.  The lower the better, the angle is much more natural and appealing to the eyes.  We usually lay down on the ground to take the pictures.  Don’t do the standing up towering over picture.
  • Have good light, sun at the camera’s back if it’s sunny.  Good flash at night or just wait till the next morning.
  • Take the picture before the animal is field dressed
  • Crop in tight.  Nobody cares what the background is, all you need is the subject behind the animal as tight as possible when you take the picture.
  • Avoid the back of the truck, driveway, and etc type junkyard pics.  Take it in a natural setting, even if it’s not where you shot the animal.
  • Fake a good setup, a good picture can easily be manipulated.
  • Edit the picture.  Most photo editors are easy  to use now.  Crop in tight and correct the color, it will make a much better picture.

For Bowfishing, many of the same principles apply, here are some additional things to apply when taking bowfishing pictures:

  • Get rid of the blood and guts.  We are always wash our fish off and clean them up.
  • Don’t take pictures of piles of dead fish, or don’t post them for the world to see if you do.  Yeah we get it, you shot a pile and want the world to know, but again that’s not the image we want to put out to the world.  If you notice, I’ll rarely if ever post a pic of a pile of fish.  Get a couple of the biggest one and take good pictures with them with your buddies.  Don’t line them up on the bank, front of the boat, or the boat ramp.  Those pictures will never ever make our catalog or any publication.  Also no pictures of a barrel of fish..again they won’t make it.
  • Don’t hold it hanging  tail to the ground, with a gaff or anything like that.  Get your hands dirty and hold the fish with one hand in the gills and one on the tail.  Hold it out in front of you, makes it look bigger.
  • Have good light!  Most bowfishing is done at night so sometimes this is hard.  Get a light you can hold and a camera with a flash.  Or wait till the next morning, clean them up and get good pictures.
  • Crop in tight..again..just you and the fish as tight as possible.

Here’s a couple of examples:

This one is pretty good except the shadow on my head, should have worn a boggan instead.

Same on this one.

Pretty good for a turkey

Bowfishing, notice how clean the fish is.

Here’s a few more of some good examples:

Take a few minutes, use these tips and get great pictures!  It may be the best memory you have!

-Bryan Hughes

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