As outdoor Web sites, forums and blogs continue to grow and become more sophisticated, more and more hunters are attaching their buck photos to e-mails and clicking them out into cyberspace for the entire world to see. This sharing of images is fun and can be a cool way to promote hunting, except for one thing. Many of the pictures (dare I say most of them) are not very good.

I am as hard-core a hunter as you will find, but I don’t particularly like to get a picture of a bloody buck with its tongue hanging out in my inbox, no matter the size of its rack. Similarly, a guy posing with a huge 10-pointer in the back of a truck, on a greasy driveway or on the concrete floor of a pole barn is not such a pretty sight.

You get the picture. It’s time to upgrade your photography, and it’s easy to do.

Gear Up

Ten years ago I lugged a separate camera bag to deer camp. I packed two big SLR camera bodies, four lenses, 10 or more rolls of film (slide and print) and a bunch of accessories. I took some great shots of hunters and their dead deer, but it was a hassle.

Now I carry a Canon PowerShot that weighs ounces, is smaller than my palm and fits in a pocket. It is almost comically user-friendly, and it takes even better pictures than those big old-school cameras I used. Just put the Canon on “auto” mode and go.

For $250 to $350, you can get a Power Shot or a similarly sized Nikon, Sony or Kodak digital camera that will take good to extraordinary photos you’ll be proud to e-mail to your buddies or frame and hang in your office. Regardless of which brand of camera you choose, here are three top features you need:

1. 5 to 7 megapixels for super-sharp images: any more megapixels are overkill for your basic hunting shots.

2. 3X or 4X digital zoom lens (pretty standard): you can zoom in tight on a hunter and his buck, and zoom out for scenic shots with more feel for the land, terrain, sky and overall habitat.

3. Image stabilizer: a camera with this feature costs a little more, but it’s definitely worth it because you get crisp photos outdoors in low light and indoors even if your hands shake a bit.

Your new camera will come with a memory card that might hold 10 to 20 digital images. Forget that and spend $20 for a separate card with 1G memory. That card will hold hundreds of hunting photos.

Composing Your Shots

Because your camera is so small, lightweight and easy to carry, you’ll have it on hand all the time, ready to snap shots of your dead buck (or your buddy’s) while the critter is still fresh and warm. The sooner you pose and photograph a dead buck, the better and more natural the animal looks.  Remember these tips:

1. Pose with a buck in the natural setting where you shot it — oak ridge, river bottom, swamp. 

2. Position the deer broadside so the sun shines on its hide and rack. That also puts the sun at the cameraman’s back and gives your photographs the best lighting.

3. Clean up the animal. A little blood is OK and expected, but wipe off any excess. I carrypaper towels for this chore on every hunt. (It never hurts to think positive.) And make sure the tongue never hangs out of a deer’s mouth; nothing looks worse in a photo.

4. Clean up the hunter in the picture, too (you or your friend). Again, a little dirt, grime or blood on your clothes or hands is to be expected, but wipe off the excess.

5. Have the hunter kneel or sit behind the animal (but never sit on a buck). Hold the rack out and away from your body to make it stand out. If possible, the cameraman should move around, get low and position the antlers so they are highlighted against the open sky. They’ll pop out great. The lower you get when you photograph a hunter and his buck, the better. Sometimes I lay prone to get the best shots.

6. The hunter in the picture just shot a good buck, so make sure he looks happy and has a nice smile.
   

Shoot A Lot

Pull out your little camera and take photos of all the cool stuff you see on a hunt, like this cedar post bucks have rubbed for many years.

Most hunters will be lucky to get one crack at a good 8- or 10-pointer this fall. If you or a buddy shoots one, don’t skimp on the photos. Have your little digital on hand at all times. Pull it out of your pocket and take 20 to 30 shots of the lucky hunter and his game at the kill spot. Maybe move the deer and take another 20 to 30 images at another scenic spot. The motto used to be, “Shoot a lot, film is cheap.” Now it’s “Shoot a lot and delete the images you don’t like from your card.”

Remember, there is lot of storage on that 1G memory card you bought. Pull out your camera and take pictures of all the interesting things you see on a hunt — a weird buck rub, a giant bee hive, a blazing sunset. All that is part of the experience. Put these photos together in a folder with the big buck you shoot (hopefully) this fall and e-mail all the cool stuff to your hunting buddies.