HOW TO TAKE A GOOD PHOTO OF YOUR TROPHY ANIMAL

As a general rule, the closer you get to the subject (animal), the better your pictures will be.  Try to eliminate those distracting backgrounds.  The object of the photo should be to maximum the animal and keep the background fairly plain.

Take several photos from different angles.  Don't be afraid to shoot a whole roll of film or more on your animal.  Compare $5/roll of film versus the $5,000 you might spend on the hunt.  A small investment in film is worth a fortune when you look back on your photos.  You've waited all year for this hunt - take the time now to get those quality shots of your trophy.

Make sure to take the picture at eye-level with the animal or the hunter.  Don't stand up and snap pictures looking down on the animal.  If You have to, crouch down or lay down and shoot the picture.

Have the hunter kneel down a foot or so behind the animal holding the antlers or head.  This creates a perfect situation where the animal looks bigger than the hunter.  Try not to sit on or straddle the animal.  There's no need to see the hunters legs or boots.  It adds nothing to the photo.

Plan on carrying your camera with you in your backpack or fanny pack while you're hunting.  Having to hike back to camp or the truck to get your camera is a lot of work.  you may also miss out on the daylight needed to get that great picture.

I hope these hints are helpful to you on your next Big Game hunt.  Check out the examples below that show a good photo and a "so-so" photo.  Happy Hunting.

Hunter behind Animal                                 Too Far Away

Ground Level                                              Can't See Horns

Quality hunting and fishing trips in the U.S., Alaska, Russia, Canada, Africa, Mongolia, China, South America

Why Use a Booking Agent? 

Lesson Learned Once Again in Mongolia.

9/17/04

 

Mr. Don Causey

The Hunting Report

9300 S. Dadeland Blvd, Suite 605

Miami, FL 33156-2721

 

Dear Don:

 

I am a subscriber who learned this lesson once again in Mongolia.  Perhaps your readers may find some of this useful.

 

 

RE: Why Use a Booking Agent?  Lesson Learned Once Again in Mongolia.

 

In 2001 a light went on and I realized why one should use a booking agent unless one has a VERY well-established outfitter relationship.  After a frustrating week of not seeing rams with a once in a lifetime non-resident Wyoming sheep tag in my pocket, the outfitter looked me in the eye and said �We�re going somewhere else and your hunt is being extended.  It will take me a couple days in town to re-supply and repack.  You get a room at the Irma and I will call you when we are ready.  I am hunting you until you kill a ram.  You are not going to be the first Jack Atcheson sheep hunter to go home without a ram.�  

 

Fact: Booking agents generally have far more clout with the outfitter than you do.  It does not matter how savvy you are, where you have hunted, or what you have killed.  They send multiple hunters to him every year, year in and year out.  This alone is a good enough reason to use a booking agent, but there is another one.  The booking agent has better information than you will ever get from the outfitter.  I hunted caribou in 1998 with an outfitter �that we have been using for the past 15 years and nobody ever came home without one��that was good enough for me!  Had a good hunt in Alaska with no problems.  Still not satisfied?  Need one more reason?  ANY foreign hunt should be booked through a booking agent�..period, end of story.  Are you going to sign a foreign contract and send thousands of dollars to some outfitter in �eastern nowhere� and HOPE he is there to meet you when you step off the plane?  For me, I want a US contract with a booking agent and want my money going to a US address; thank you.  If nobody shows up to meet me I know where I can find the booking agent.

 

OK, so here comes the recent story that brings it all home once more.  I just returned from a Mongolian Ibex hunt with Butch Manasse Outdoor Adventures, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  I had done three previous hunts booked by Butch and found the hunts to be �as good or better� than he described.  Butch is pretty candid and careful to tell you the good and bad points of the outfitter.  He tells you things like �take some antibiotics and some MRE�s, some of my hunters have gotten sick from the food on this one.�  That is a lot better information than some outfitter telling you �our chow is great�.

 

I was booked into Mongolia with seven other Americans, all hunting Altai Ibex.  The tour company met us at the airport and the hunt was well organized from start to finish.  We all had a great hunt and all want to go back.  There were no major problems of any kind, and everyone had killed respectable ibex in 2-3 days�in fact, we killed 10 in all as some guys took 2.  However, there were two minor money issues that arose during the hunt.  Four of us had booked 1 on 1 and did not get it.  They had insufficient horses and jeeps and we had to hunt 2 on 1.  Also, we had been promised 4 full hunting days and due to airline schedules, it came to 3.5 hunting days.    I called Butch from camp on a satellite phone (rented from Edy at the Hunting Report, of course) and told him the problems of short hunt, and the 2 on 1.  He sent the tour company an email while we were in camp explaining this problem and requesting compensation for us.  When we returned from camp to Ulaanbaatar, the tour representative apologized over an excellent Thai lunch and promised to refund our money.  After lunch we went to the tour company office and sat in the executive conference room.  He stepped out for a minute, then returned and peeled off crisp US currency and paid us all (about $2,500 total).  THAT, my friend, is why you always use a booking agent.  There is no way an individual hunter could have commanded that kind of clout in Outer Mongolia when things were not exactly as represented.  Butch has sent hunters to this operator in Mongolia for years and they knew the long-term relationship was worth more than the immediate monies at hand.   Incidentally, the money Butch saved me more than covered the entire satellite phone rental expenditure. 

 

I thought this was worth sharing with you.  Perhaps others have had different experiences, but for me, I prefer to reduce my risk by booking through an agent. 

 

 

 

W.E. �Chris� Crispens