Hunting Pheasants in the Snow, With a Camera

I have some great hunting buddies, but none better than my lovely wife Lisa. She 'hunts' with a camera and she's a pretty good shot! Here is a sample of her most recent work, a slideshow of images captured in South Dakota during our last pheasant hunt of the 2013 season.

Please note: some of the images capture the moment of impact as a pheasant was shot. Viewer discretion is advised. All game we harvest is prepared, with respect, for the table and enjoyed by friends and family.

Uma in the Snow

Another short video clip, this one featuring Uma the Pont-Audemer Spaniel hunting pheasants in the snow..and a rare (thank goodness) misfire due to a defective shotgun shell!

An Encore for Souris-Manon

 In September I wrote a post explaining that the retirement of our dog Souris-Manon from the hunting field only lasted about a week. And now that the season is over, I can happily report that she actually had one of the best seasons ever! So I've put together a photo and video retrospective of Souris-Manon's encore hunting season. Enjoy!

This summer, our nearly 14-year-old Weimaraner was laid low by pancreatitis. And when the veterinarian discovered a heart murmur, it looked as if Souris-Manon's hunting days were over.

But the smell of autumn and the promise of birds in the woods was too hard to resist. We decided to just let her hunt --come what may.  And on her very first hunt after coming out of retirement, Souris outsmarted a sharptail grouse. Click below to see the video replay.

And so, from that day to the last day of the season, Souris ran across pastures.

and in stubble fields.

Over the prairies,

and in the woods.

She found birds to point in the tall grass,

in the cattails,

 

and even in the snow.

 

She backed her hunting buddies,

and on the rare occasion when my aim was true,

she retrieved pheasants (click to play),

snipe

woodcock, grouse, ducks and geese.

But above all, Souris did what she's done every day for nearly 14 years. She put smiles on our faces and warmed our hearts.

Bravo Souris. It was a fantastic encore!!

Season's End

I just got back from the final hunting trip of the 2012-13 season. My buddy Ross and I had an awesome time in North Dakota chasing roosters with Zeiss, Vinnie, Uma and Maisey. Here's a quick slide show of some of the photos I managed to snap in the -30 weather.

     

And here's a slide show of the great shots Ross got.

 

The Tumbling Pheasant

Last Friday, my buddy Ross Cornish and I headed out to the wilds of North Dakota. It was the last weekend of the pheasant season and we had two goals: 1) to hunt pheasants (duh) and 2) to right a massive wrong. 

You see, Ross and I are both professional photographers. But the last time we hunting in North Dakota, just before Xmas, we didn't even bring our cameras! And since winter in North Dakota can actually be quite beautiful  – in a strange, minus-35-with-a-howling-wind kind of way – we'd been kicking ourselves ever since. So when we decided to go back for one last hunt, we made sure to pack our hunting and photo gear.

On day one we got lucky. We shot a limit of roosters by 3 p.m. So we decided to head back to town and take a few photos on the way. About half way back we noticed a farm yard protected by a thick shelter belt of trees. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the whole place was filled with birds. As we approached, we could see dozens and dozens of pheasants milling about, walking and flying across the road into another stand of trees on the opposite side. So we hatched a plan: one guy would hide in the ditch with his camera while the other guy flushed the birds over him so he could get some shots of the birds in flight.

We pulled into the yard and knocked on the door of the house to ask permission to 'shoot' the birds with our cameras. The lady who answered the door was very friendly (I've yet to meet and unfriendly North Dakotan). She said 'be my guest'.

Ross was up first. He hunkered down on one side of the road while I walked the tree line on the other side 'pushing' the birds towards him. He ended up getting some really nice shots, like this one.

Then it was my turn. I found a spot next to a telephone poll and waited for the birds to fly over me. The first bird was a rooster. When it was about 75 yards away, I lifted my camera and fired off a long burst  of frames with my Canon's high-speed motor drive. Here is one of the first shots from that series.

Notice the telephone wire in the bottom right corner? Well, it is one of two wires. The other one is not in the frame; I did not notice it. But neither did that rooster! As I was firing away with my camera, I heard a mighty TWANG! but kept on shooting. Then I saw a puff of feathers and realised that the rooster had flown right into the wire. But he seemed to recover from the hit; I saw him fly away into the distance as the feathers he left behind floated down to the ground. So I turned my attention back to the other birds whizzing past me and got some nice shots like this one:

And this one

And this one

When all the action was over, I told Ross about the tumbling rooster but figured I missed getting any shots of the action. It wasn't until we were back at the hotel reviewing all the images of the day that I noticed I actually did capture the action, at least in part. 

So here they are, three not-quite-in-focus shots of the tumbling rooster, Photoshoped into a single frame.