PHOTOGRAPHING A WHITETAIL DEER
FOR A MAGAZINE OR WEB SITE

1. Be sure the tongue is not hanging. If it won’t stay in, take a small nail and put it through and under the lower jaw into the tongue. Make sure there is no blood around the mouth or nose.
2. Try to take the picture in the field. If possible, take the picture before field dressing. Darker backgrounds are better. (No pictures of hanging deer.)
3. If field dressed, then wash off all the blood on your hands and on the deer. If it won’t come off with water, try window cleaner.
4. Take lots of different angles. If you can get at an angle below the buck’s head and below the hunter it will make the rack look even bigger.
5. Try not to get behind the rack; get to the side instead. This will keep the rack from competing with your body size.
6. If it is going to be below freezing that night, you can pose the deer’s ears and head in an upright position, but it is not necessary.

1. Take the mount outside and hang it in a natural setting (such as the side of an unpainted barn, a fence post, tree, etc., with no visible sign of civilization), preferably in the morning or late afternoon. The sunlight is just too severe at midday.
2. Get as close to the mount as possible, allowing the head and antlers to fill the window in your camera’s viewfinder. Be sure everything is in focus.
3. Experiment by standing at different angles, and find the one that best shows ALL of the deer’s points. This is often NOT a head-on shot.
4. Stand so that the camera’s focal point is slightly below the level of the deer’s nose.
5. Make sure that no shadows, including your own, are falling across any part of the mount.
6. Tilt the camera up sideways to get a vertical shot. Remember: You’re taking a portrait here!
7. Try shooting several pictures with AND without a flash.
8. I recommend Fuji or Kodak film with a speed of 100 or 200 for these types of shots but 400 will do.
9. We’d like shots of the mount by itself AND with the hunter, who should NOT wear white clothing.
10. If you don’t have access to a 35mm camera, PLEASE consider taking the mount to a portrait studio and share these tips with the professional photographer. The only difference should be in background. Instead of an outside shot, tell the photographer to use a solid color (NOT white). A black background is better. Regular-sized prints or 5x7s will suffice; 8x10s aren’t necessary.
11. If you are going to e-mail to see if they have interest, then digital or scanned pictures are fine to start, but for any magazines they will want 35mm from a photo lab only. Do not print them from printer and send them in. For a web site digital pictures are fine.
12. Don’t forget to get double prints made if you are sending them in so you will have one for yourself.
13. Not all whitetails will make the magazines. They have their own minimums for that magazine, even if they score beyond the minimums for that club. Either way be sure and get it Buckmaster’s scored ASAP no waiting time needed. Then get it B&C or P&Y scored after the 60 days. Without a score sheet they can not decide if it will make the magazine’s minimum requirements.
14. MOST important – SMILE, you just took a great trophy.

courtesy of
Allen "horntagger" Morris
THE MISSOURI SPORTSMEN www.mosportsmen.com
horntagger@mchsi.com