Taxidermy vs Videography

KAROO WILD Safaris

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With the increasing costs of shipping, does anyone view having a professional videographer accompany and produce high quality video and pics, as a real alternative to taxidermy.

we’ve had a few of our clients hunts videod and the details and the quality of the videos have been outstanding. Nothing can replace that extraordinary mount in your house but a video you can easily share with your friends - live screening at hour house or through video aps. And you can display professional grade photos of the hunt and kill in an artistic way.
For the outfitters benefit/ he gets high quality promotional material from the film. We actually subsidize our hunt videos, making it 30% cheaper for our clients.
With the increased cost and import bans on some species, I believe the videography market will begin to catch up to taxidermy.

would love to hear other opinions on the subject- feel free to jump in
 
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I think that this is a very real alternative. I have also heard that having the videographer in camp helps to build the social aspect of the trip.
 
I have had 2 hunts video taped, not professionally done but they are pretty good. I do watch them occasionally however I spend part of every day in my room reliving past hunts . I would like to have a hunt taped professionally but will always have some animals mounted.
 
We were a group of 3 hunters with a single videographer and it always seemed that when any of us had him with us the others got into the animals.

However I got a couple of my animals on video and for 6 months after the hunt it was watched quite often, but that video hasn't been played for over 5 years now, but I walk past the mounted heads every day and remember something about the hunt. Not to mention when someone comes into my home and asks about my hunt.

If was just pictures on the wall or a video I doubt that I would ever get asked about them.
 
I would spend my money on taxidermy and let my grandchildren figure out what to do with the heads and skins.

(It may well be worth more then than you pay for it now)




Everyone that comes into my house is awed and impressed with my 8 African mounts (with 2 more on the way)

Heck, I've never even watched the video of my wedding, that I paid over $1,000 for 30 years ago.

(Nobody even has a VHS player anymore anyway)
 
I don't think other people really get over whelmed or interested in someone else's video. They will look at or take a glance at a great piece of taxidermy work. People have short attention spans !

I also like to look at my taxidermy work and enjoy fond memories of a hunt.
JMHO
 
If you keep hunting, and you do not have unlimited resources, you eventually will run out of room. At that point you can either quit hunting, or resort to other means to memorialize your experiences. I have a friend who hunted Africa twice - found it a life changing adventure - and will not return because he has no room for mounts. That, to me at least, is a definition of insanity.

I also disagree that any descendent wants to be the heir to grandpa’s dead animals. It would likely be an interesting poll of to determine how many members have a trophy room of things shot by a grandfather. I suspect it would be very few. And you really should check auction prices if you believe you will get any meaningful return on your taxidermy investment.

I only bring back special animals now. I think long and hard about any real taxidermy work. For instance, I just returned from Austria with gold medal class Sika and Chamois. They will be done in traditional Euro mounts.

Photography or videography represents a great alternative to vanishing budget, wall, and floor space. In many ways such memories are far more interesting to family and friends than some dead animal embalmed on the wall.

I make book quality photo journals of every hunt. I suspect they will have a far longer family legacy than any bit of bone or hide. I have always considered my taxidermy, old or new world, to be representative of my passion, not the sum total.
 
My wife and I had both our Zimbabwe hunt videoed. I would do it again but not for the reasons most would expect. Our video guy, Jordan Alderton has become a great friend and having him along is like having a second PH or tracker. I would pay the video costs just to have him along. We found most of our hunting friends could care less about seeing the video. With the ever rising costs of dip/pack and shipping I doubt we will ever bring much back from our future hunts other than a good video, pictures, and memories. I did find that watching the video is like watching someone else hunt, if does give you a different perspective of what really happened.
 
I just had my recent hunt filmed. Yes I will have future hunts filmed and less taxidermy done. I am on limited budgets like most and at the age mounts at home are not seen by many people.
I will ship back only 3 animals from my recent hunt and next years hunt maybe two. So the filming will give me what I need to relive the hunt as it happened.
 
My first safari was an auction hunt at DSC that included videography. That was 2011. Ann and I haven't watched the DVD in few years but it will come out again. I like having the taxidermy on the walls when working or relaxing in my den. My space has filled up resulting in only Euro mounts in the future. I didn't do videography in Mozambique and wish I had. So, our next trip will include it - whether my own / my wife's amateur or hiring a professional. There is something special seeing movement vs. still photos. As well as capturing conversations, hearing the sounds of the bush, etc.
 
Taxidermy is great and I think the first time hunter to Africa gets overwhlemed by new species and the hunts and just wants to taxidermy everything. That fills up the room quickly and make less space for the more special trophies and game that come after.

When I was young I also mounted what I could it was not much but I have switched over to Euro mounts for everything and it saves space, cost and looks like skulls in the house is the in thing these days.

Being behind the camera and filming hunts as well for clients was fun and can be very productive haveing more hunting eyes and hunting expereince on a hunt. You can catch special moments that you can only capture in movement and scenery or the hairy thick bush you had to go trhough to get close to your buffalo.

I was very lucky that my lion hunt got filmed and am still waiting the edited short film will I enjoy it of course will I share it of course. But I must say when I wrote my report about the hunt I got boosebumps again reliving the moments.

Do what you can to keep the momentos of the hunt and remember a trophy is not just a record book animal but a throphy is that special momento of the hunt if its on Film, Photo or taxidermy. It shows respect to the game hunted and the path that led to the the trophy.
 
For my lion hunt next year I arranged it to be filmed. I would prefer taxidermy but because of the anti hunt crew over here I cannot import. Maybe some PG that will be mounted
 
Well I sit on the both train. Hunts we have filmed are nice and when we have morning coffe on Sundays we stick a thumb drive in the tv and enjoy the memories. That being said there's nothing like our room full of mounts and photos to bring back the hunt on a daily bases. Who knows how much higher shippping and taxidermy will have to rise to keep up with the world. But for now ill pay.
So just out of curiosity how much does it cost for a pro film job ?
 
Well I sit on the both train. Hunts we have filmed are nice and when we have morning coffe on Sundays we stick a thumb drive in the tv and enjoy the memories. That being said there's nothing like our room full of mounts and photos to bring back the hunt on a daily bases. Who knows how much higher shippping and taxidermy will have to rise to keep up with the world. But for now ill pay.
So just out of curiosity how much does it cost for a pro film job ?
I agree with you, it’s a different type of appreciation. Videography varies between $180-$250 per day including editing.
 
My first hunt has been pushed twice with COVID/moving jobs. It’s happening 2022 no matter what. How bad have the shipping prices become? I know containers we get from China have gone from 5k-30k so I’m guessing it’s getting ugly...

I had planned to mount a bush pig and warthog then bring back couple euros/skins. Maybe I’m buying a nice camera instead
 
I had 10 mounted trophies sent over in June of this year. the total turned out to be around 3000, this included some good sized animals like kudu, waterbuck and some smaller plains game. It’s amazing how efficiently they can pack into a crate.
 
Each to their own. Personally I love the few shoulder mounts I have and although we compile a video story of each hunt too the real keeper is a small published book or each hunt, or a running assemblage of the successive hunts. This is very easy to do and most of us already do all the leg work in the trip reports we write up.
 
Each to their own. Personally I love the few shoulder mounts I have and although we compile a video story of each hunt too the real keeper is a small published book or each hunt, or a running assemblage of the successive hunts. This is very easy to do and most of us already do all the leg work in the trip reports we write up.

After having heard the suggestion of a professional production book, with a journal and the best photo’s, from @Red Leg, that is exactly what I did. I do not have any mounts at home from my first safari yet, but this book gets leafed through every other day.
Shivers, hair upright on my arms and soft eyes included.
 
I did when I got home and went through all the photos that I and 2 other hunters took made a DVD out of the photos themselves. Between 3 of us there were over 4500 photos to go through to get the best and weed out the strange ones. Besides our hunt we also took a week and a half tour so that added quite a bit to our photo totals.

One of the hunters actually posted a video that he made to YouTube so that everyone that wanted to see it could. One day while I was in my financial planners office he mentioned to a new person about how I loved to hunt and had gone to Africa on a safari. Well, a few minutes later we were watching that photo montage on his big screen that he usually showed me my financial status. It is fun that way because if you are near a computer or even a phone now days and someone wants to hear about my trip I can reference that video.

If anyone is interested on how that came out here it is.

 

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