Reinventing the typical trophy photo

[Wildwillalaska]

Her with my initial buffalo of the trip, and some of her animals…

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

Great thread! Here are a few of my favorites-

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All great photos but the last one is art.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Few more.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Daughter saw this broken sable, immediately naming him Greg and started trying to convince me of the merits in her taking Greg vs an unbroken bull next trip. Luckily we found service and after some quick messages between our PH and property manager, I couldn’t finds reasons to say no.

 

[fourfive8]

Sometimes no people works as well if not better

 

[Jasonj231867]

 

[Jasonj231867]

 

[Jasonj231867]

My PH Lex Struss and cameraman Wessel Pesler were at the top of there game!!

 

[Betterinthebush]

 

[Betterinthebush]

 

[Philip Glass]

I am just as apt to take the typical trophy photo as anyone, and have done so each time.

However, when looking at trophy photos, I find that I more quickly scroll past typical photos and linger longer when they are an odd or irregular picture.

I imagine the repetitive composition of the typical trophy photo has become a bit ordinary to my eyes, even though the subject matter is truly extraordinary.

I tried to do something different as an experiment this last hunt, but don't think my ideas were great (and the PH didn't like them better either):

1. Typical composition:

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2. A little bit different (closer to the head; whole animal is not shown):

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3. Something I don't see as frequently (perspective on a level plane; facing the animal; reverent hand on animal):

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I do notice that vintage safari photos are much more interesting to me in composition and variety. For example, people are standing, people are sitting on animals, people are looking off into the distance, there are big groups around the animal, etc.

I know many of you have done unique trophy photos too, as I can think of several examples that come to mind.

There is no formal question here, just an observation, but, I would appreciate if anyone has non-standard composition trophy pictures they would like to share here to help give me ideas.

It would be great to have some different composition ideas in mind before my next hunt.

Thanks Ya’ll!

I like that as well

 

[JG26Irish_2]

I wanted to post a few more semi candid photos which were taken last month in Free State and Limpopo and were inspired by this thread. I will begin posting a hunt report soon.

Taking the Bull K-Doo by the horns. We worked HARD for this bad boy.

Warthog entrance wound from 7mm/08 139g Hornady CX - was quartering hard away. Bullet entered the left flank making the gruesome entry wound and travelled into the chest cavity dropping the WH in his tracks on a 70y running shot. Messy but effective. Knocked the sausages out of him.

Master Photographer taking a posed shot of great white hunter with his Buff.

Buff Down - Four shots with 375HH 300g TSX. Only ran about 30y.

ER Shaw Custom P14 Enfield, Kahles K16i 1-6x 375HH Classic Big Game Rifle

Proof that B-Balls are tougher than expected

Blesbok with Hunglip Mtn Waterberg Range in the background - Limpopo

Yours truly rockin RDB Safaris Logo & well worn Tag Zimbabwe vest somewhere in Free State

Well Earned cold one after a long day in the bushveld

Close up of 7mm/08 PG rifle f/ Fierce Firearms - CT Edge, a true 1/2moa pew pew. With Arken Optics super effective EP8 1-8x LPVO. Lt weight & accurate. Served me well on this Safari.

In the background is young padawan PH searching for Zebra Spoor. He was good at his job but Diana did not grace us with a shot on Zebra this trip.​

 

[DonPablo]

I like these:

 

[Johnny_2_Knives]

A great thread and I enjoyed reading everyone’s responses and ideas on good trophy photos.

This is a Rusa stag I shot 2 weeks ago and as a rule, I’ll take a few shots to work out what I’m happy with.

 

[TarletonJake]

My wife took this photo without me knowing until after the fact.

 

[NoStepOnSnek]

No African trophy pics (yet) but here are some of my favorite from Alabama over the past few years

 

[Jason Miller]

Some of these photos are awesome, I like candid shots personally, while hunting back in April I kept asking the trackers and PH to please stop posing the animal and using the angle where the animal looks huge in the foreground, just looks cheesy to me, (personal opinion of course)

 

[Betterinthebush]

 

[Rigby375]

I tend to gravitate towards photographs without me in them so that the focus is on the animal, the environment and / or the rifle.

Here’s one from a trip to Scotland last year. We’d dragged the stag a hundred yards or so to the head of the lochan and stepped back while we waited for the ghillie to collect us in a boat (just visible in the distance). It wasn’t a posed photo as such, just how the beast lay as we finished dragging.

We had had a particularly hard day on the hill that day with swirling wind and low cloud that meant the deer were always one step ahead of us. And then we found this stag holding hinds below us just as we were about to call it a day.

Without a doubt the ensuing stalk (essentially on our backsides down a stream, with the water pouring over us, desperately trying not to make a sound on the loose rocks) was the most challenging and exhilarating I have ever done.

This photograph instantly transports me back to that hillside, soaked to the skin and hearing stags roaring in the low cloud and echoing around us, trying to slow my breathing down after the scramble to take the shot…

And then this is completely different from my first trip to Africa in May of this year but I haven’t seen a zebra posed like this before and love the way that it shows off the incredible patterning to the fullest extent.