Capturing Your Success

By Brian Sorrells

Success on a hunt is something to be proud of, no doubt about it. So is catching a 5 pound bucketmouth or a mess of slab side crappies or bluegills. On the downside, the memories themselves may fade over time, but there is a way to freeze those moments in time so you can enjoy them whenever you want, and share your success with those who weren’t there.

Of course I’m talking about pictures. Just a few years ago, film was the normal media and, even with the simplest disposable cameras, the quality of your photos was a hit or miss proposition and you didn’t know if your “hero shots” were going to be something worthy of framing or if they would be a disappointment and end up gathering dust at the bottom of a file drawer.

This is the digital age and with the cameras available today, you can see how your picture turned out right there on the spot. If it doesn’t make the grade, you can either erase it or keep shooting until you get the desired result. Gone too are the days of an inconvenient trip to the photo mart or corner drug store to get your pictures developed. Most of us have a printer to go along with our computers and most computers today come with at least a basic form of photo enhancing software, enabling you to doctor your images to your satisfaction and print the pictures right there at home. Ya’ gotta love technology sometimes!

As a professional writer and photographer, I own several high end cameras and lenses, but they don’t lend themselves well to travel in the field and they are costly to fix or replace should you have a mishap or get caught in a downpour. Enter the simple digital point and shoot camera.

Without getting into confusing topics like aperture, shutter speed, and white balance, the most important feature for quality, high resolution images is the number of megapixels your camera has. Megapixels are microscopic colored dots grouped together to form an image. To the naked eye, the flow seamlessly together but in reality there are millions of them of different colors, and they are, in fact, square! Your camera’s sensor reads the image that is framed in the lens, breaks it down into squares, and assigns each pixel a color in order to accurately reflect the colors it “see” through the lens.

The fewer the megapixels, the grainier your photo will appear. Attempts to enlarge the photo will make it appear as a series of small squares. An 8 megapixel camera is a good all-around unit that will allow you to enlarge your photos up to eight by ten (and sometimes larger) without losing any resolution or causing pixelization.

Which camera to choose from, you ask? The ideal camera for outdoor use is weather resistant, small enough to carry easily yet big enough to be easily operated, even by those with bigger hands and fingers. Canon, Nikon, and Sony all offer consumer grade “point and shoot” cameras that will fit most any budget and take excellent pictures.

Digital cameras, instead of using film, utilize media cards to store the image in a digital format until you download it to your computer. Media cards are usually either the SD type or the CF (compact flash) type. SD cards are found in newer cameras and are much smaller than CF ards, though each does the same job. They each also come with varying amounts of memory. A 2 MB (megabyte) SD or CF card will hold plenty of pictures during your trip afield or on the water, though media cards are available that will store up to 8 MB of information. The number of pictures that you can get on the card depends on how your have your camera set up. Read your camera’s manual cover to cover before ever taking the first picture so that you have a good working knowledge of your camera’s operation. By setting your camera to take large files, you’ll have much more detail and less pixelization in the image and this will allow you to make larger prints of each picture.

If you hunt alone, as I usually do, taking a picture with your animal can be somewhat of a chore. I recommend purchasing a small, cheap tripod to carry in your day or fanny pack with the camera. Simply position your animal (be it a limit of quail, geese, or a whitetail in a tasteful manner, then mount your camera on the tripod and position it to cover your intended shot, making sure to leave enough space in the frame for you! Using the camera’s built-in self-timer, simply push the button, move quickly back to your set up and strike a pose! The great thing about digital is that after the shot, you can review the image and, if it isn’t to your satisfaction, you can take another, and another, and another. Reposition things in the scene and try different camera angles.

When the time comes to download your images onto your computer, you can use the photo enhancing software to crop the images, automatically correct any color or white balance mistakes, and make your image worthy of a magazine cover! And, for those of you who have hopes of getting a story in one of the magazines we all love to read, remember this; An editor is more likely to accept a piece if it is accompanied by good photographs.

As always, if you have questions, feel free to e-mail me at: bjarcher159@comcast.net

Good luck and good shooting!