Taking Pictures of Deer

There are two ways to take your own trophy deer pictures. One way is to have lots of trail cameras in areas where there are trophy bucks, and the other is to shoot big bucks and then take pictures of them.

There are some tips that will improve your chances of getting those big pictures. Like this one:

Deer Pictures with a Trail Camera

The first "tricks" to getting big deer pictures with a trail camera are to have a lot of cameras and put them where lots of big deer live. If there are no big deer you won't get pictures of them.

When you put trail cameras up on your property you should take care with how you get the cameras out, and where you put them. If your cameras smell like gas, or you, or any other human smell, then the deer, especially big deer, will avoid the cameras. If you have a deer sanctuary, that means never entering it, even for pictures.

One thing I am guilty of, especially during the summer, is to not take as much care while going in to check the camera and collect the memory cards. When I go hunting I cautiously walk in as silently and as unnoticeably as possible. When I am at the property checking trail cameras, I haven't been as good about avoiding smells and I am less interested in moving as stealthily as I should.

Take some time to think about where you put your trail cameras. If you want to cover a trail, then don't put the camera on the trail you should have it a few feet away. Think like you would if you were standing taking the picture your self.

Also consider putting the camera higher up trees. Deer may not notice a camera 6-8 feet up a tree. Deer, and people, spend our days looking straight ahead and down, an little time looking up. How often to you look at you ceiling or car ceiling?

Modern digital trail cameras have batteries and memory cards that can take thousands of pictures with no input from you. You don't need to check your cameras every week. When we still used film trail cameras, I checked one every week. The first week at this camera had 15 different bucks, between 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 years old. The second week had like 6 different bucks on it, and the third week had 2 or 3 small bucks only. Check your cameras only when you need to.

The biggest trick in getting trophy deer pictures is having lots and lots of pictures to sort through and find those few pictures of big bucks.

Deer Pictures After the Kill

A good way to get a good picture of a big buck is to shoot one.
Here's my biggest to date:

With lots of pictures I have lots of choices to pick the ones I like best.

And here's a bunch of trophy deer pictures . All the bucks on that page are trophies, you can see how all of the hunters are happy about their deer. But some of them could have pictures that help their deer to look bigger. There is not as much as you can do with smaller bucks, but if you shoot a great big buck, then you may want to be prepared for taking the best pictures possible.

The first trick to having your deer look bigger in pictures is to take lots of different pictures from different angles and locations and positions.

Turn the deer's head in different ways. Take pictures from the deer's right and left, front and back. Take pictures with the deer on the ground, take pictures with the deer in the back of your truck, etc. You don't know which pictures will be the best. A slight angle can make a big difference and you won't know which angle is best until you review the pictures.

Many of the pictures on the page I linked to have head-on pictures, and this is not the best angle from which to view a buck; you can't see the sides if you look straight on. Bucks often look better from behind, and I make a point of getting a picture from behind of the big deer I shoot, but that has never been the best picture.

Another thing to do is to use more than one camera. I don't have a picture of a 51" muskie because of a camera malfunction which was not noticed until after the fish was released. If you want to be sure of a good picture, buy a disposable film camera to supplement your digital one, in case you shoot a big buck.

If I shoot a big buck, I will remove my legally required orange and camouflage before the pictures. A solid color background for the antlers will be better than the camouflage we are wearing when we shoot.