Shot this Rocky Mountain chipmunk with my Canon 7D last weekend. Little guy sure was hungry.
PS – Try watching it Full Screen – Click the arrows on the bottom right of the player.
Shot this Rocky Mountain chipmunk with my Canon 7D last weekend. Little guy sure was hungry.
PS – Try watching it Full Screen – Click the arrows on the bottom right of the player.
The art of deer hunting is quite challenging in and of itself. Matching wits with an animal that has such an amazing set of innate defense mechanisms of smell, sight and hearing is exhilarating. Add the element of using a bow over a rifle or muzzleloader and the challenge increases even more. To make things even more complicated, how about having someone film you on your hunt? That’s where things get interesting.
The dynamic of the experience changes. Everything is multiplied by two – your scent, your movement and every sound you make. Each of these decreasing your chances of killing a deer. Things like walking to your stand. Climbing up a tree. Setting up a ground blind. All now have to make sense for not one, but two people.
So many deer hunters like you are taking up this challenge of filming your hunts. Adding some so called spice to the hunt. It’s amazing really to see the growth of this movement. Yes, I call it a movement because of the sheer number of everyday people who are taking action – with their own cameras. Enhancing their hunting experiences. Capturing and sharing their memories.
But if all this wasn’t enough to challenge the hunter, enter the DSLR. The digital single lens reflex camera. A piece of equipment that most folks use to take photographs. But for some, including myself, it’s the ultimate tool to capture High Definition video, documentary style.
It’s a game changer. But how you may ask? Well, besides taking high quality photographs, many DSLR’s have an HD video mode who’s quality rivals that of hollywood quality video equipment costing thousands of dollars more.
I shot Huntography using my Canon 7D DSLR camera. It was not easy. Not at all. But man, was it fun. And the quality of footage was in many instances, beyond amazing. There aren’t enough adjectives to properly cover how I feel about this piece of video equipment. But for all the positives, there are an equal amount of negatives.
The Canon 7D DSLR camera and many other HDSLR’s, do not have full auto focus while shooting in video mode – there are some exceptions however. What does this mean for the Huntographer? It means that if a nice buck catches you off guard and comes running in behind you, you’re going to have to scramble to get that buck in focus. One second he could be 30 yards out and then, in the blink of an eye, he could be right under your stand. You’re going to have to manually focus that whole sequence of movement. That is a skill that takes time to acquire and to be good at. You could get what’s called a follow focus and attach it to your camera but that adds another dimension to the mix – more weight and cost for your rig. I made one myself that worked great while I practiced at home. But when I was in the moment, filming in the woods, it didn’t feel right to me and actually made the shots more difficult. Hey, maybe it was because my DIY follow focus only cost me $5 to make 
Then, a scenario could will arise where you may need to zoom in more but the lens you have on the camera at that moment won’t cut it. So you have to quickly switch out the lens all while the deer are around you. Not easy at all. Believe me, I personally experienced it.
Yes, I said lenses. You will need more than one. And don’t bother buying a DSLR with a kit lens, they are not that good. If you’re going to buy a DSLR, buy the body only and use the difference towards an higher quality lens.
As I mentioned in the scenario above, you will need to have all of your possible focal ranges covered. This is something that a traditional video camera has over a DSLR, as far as simplicity and convenience are concerned. They typically have an optical zoom range up to 20x to adequately handle a vast array of distances. To put that into perspective, in a DSLR, that focal range could be about 26-520mm. To cover that vast range you’ll need multiple lenses. Not cheap and not easy to maneuver while sitting 25 feet up a tree.
You’re going to need an external mic. The built in audio lacks the quality needed for a good sounding production. The cost here is not too bad and well worth the investment.
Unlike most traditional video cameras who record onto inexpensive mini dv or via a built in solid state hard drive, DSLR’s use Compact flash cards and SDHC cards that don’t come cheap. Then you have to download all the footage each night to an external hard drive to make room for the next days footage. The large file sizes that HD video produce will quickly eat up your hard drive space. You’ll need multiple external hard drives to archive your precious hunting footage. Again, not cheap.
Sound like fun yet? Now that you have captured some great memories on camera, you’ll want to share that with family, friends or the world. This brings me back to the large file sizes that HD video from DSLR’s produce. It is almost impossible to edit the raw footage. You’ll need to compress it first. A long and tedious task. One that takes up even more hard drive space. Ouch!
After that’s done, you’ll need to edit. I’m a Mac. So I use Final Cut Pro Studio. iMovie will certainly work though. For you PC users, you’ll just have to google some editing software options to use
I’ll write a post about everything I learned from my first hand experience using a Canon 7D DSLR to film last years first season of Huntography soon. I hope that some of my learnings will help those of you who want to try filming with a DSLR. Until then, I’ll have to finish up the dvd.
I can’t wait for this years deer hunting season to arrive.
Ok, so who’s ready to become a Huntographer and go film their hunts with a DSLR?
P.S. – A DSLR camera is not necessary in order to be a Huntographer
[hunt-og-ra-pher, noun] – A Huntographer is someone who combines their passion for hunting, videography and photography.
Ever since I could remember, I’ve loved the outdoors. As a kid growing up in New York City, I looked forward to heading upstate New York on the weekends to our mountain cabin. There we’d get to enjoy the clean crisp air, lakes, streams, fishing, target shooting, hunting, campfires, the stars, the people, the stories and most of all, just being in the woods. It was a memorable time that left a huge impression on me. One that helped shape much of who I am today. I thank my parents deeply for that.
So what does this have to do with the video above? Well, it turns out there are many of you out there just like me. Regular folks who had the privilege being introduced to the outdoors at an early age. You grew up with a love for hunting and fishing. You experienced traditions passed down by our elders. You became outdoorsman!
Yet, on the flip side, some of your were not as fortunate. You may not have had the same opportunities to experience loading up your Marlin .22 rifle and taking aim at a target or casting a bass lure in a swampy pond or getting up at 5am at deer camp on a cold and frigid morning. Yet somehow along the way, you picked up a love for it on your own, at a later stage of your life. And today, it is a deep part of you.
Each one of you has something in common. A deep passion for hunting, fishing or our shooting sports. But there is something else as well that bonds us no matter what side of the tracks we come from. Our Stories.
It’s these stories that allows us to be able to sit down with each other for the first time and have a good time as if we’ve been lifelong friends.
Last fall, I had the honor of joining some of you on your deer hunting adventures. I travelled across the country to four different states including Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and New York. Each deer camp turned out to be very different and unique. I pretty much took all my vacation days off from work and sacrificed my own opportunity to hunt in return for a chance to get behind the lens to capture your whitetail deer hunting memories on camera. Looking back, I had some life altering experiences and wouldn’t change a thing.
A snippet of what I captured can be seen in the trailer. More details will follow when I complete the video documentary. Countless memories will be forever engrained in our memory banks. But all would not be possible without the good folks who are the stars of Huntography. Regular people like you and me who hunt public land, their own private land or have managed to pool together a group of folks to get a deer lease. I’ll do my best to cover each of them in detail in follow up blog posts.
I wanted to capture our deer hunting culture as pure as it could be, on their turf, in their own words. It’s not about how many points a buck has or what it will score. It’s not just about the kill. No kill needed for a good time to be had. It’s about capturing everything that happens, before, during and after a hunt. It’s about the small talk, the banter between good friends. It’s about you. For a first time Huntographer, I’m pretty happy with the results.
Yet this is only the beginning. This fall, the journey will continue. Across more states. More deer camps. I will personally come to you, on my dime. The end result, more of your stories available for the world to see through my lens. More lifelong friendships to be made.
Many of you already are huntographers. Whether you film your own hunts, help your friends and family or film professionally for large companies like Drury Outdoors or Realtree. You do it for fun and with passion. For this, I applaud you. There’s nothing better than capturing a deer hunting moment on camera and later reliving it with family and friends. The video story of the monster buck that got away can now be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and more all from your iPhone 4 of Droid mobile device- imagine that.
If you’d like me to visit your deer camp this fall to film you, just contact me and we’ll set it up.
If you think your family and friends might enjoy a different kind of deer hunting video that focuses on our heritage and the everyday hunting experiences of our peers, please share this with them on Facebook and Twitter.
I look forward to filming America’s hunters, meeting new friends, sharing stories and making everlasting memories. One at a time.
