From The Traditional Bowhunter’s Handbook

If you want to take high quality, life-like images of your trophy in the field, you ought to keep a set of taxidermy glass eyes in your hunting pack. When you get ready to shoot your photos, simply slip the glass eyes over the animal’s eyes and under the eyelids and adjust the eyelids to look normal.

This simple trick improves the quality of the image immensely. You know all those photos you see with fogged over eyes on game? How about the shiny eye when a flash is used? The flash reflecting off the back of the eyeball causes this. Using glass eyes will prevent these photographic blunders. I bought mine from Van Dyke’s Taxidermy and carry them in a film container in my hunting pack. The antelope glass eyes work the best for deer photos.

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I get a lot of questions about how to submit a photo for the harvest section. Send a photograph to:

Traditional Bowhunter Magazine
Attn: T. J. Conrads
P O Box 519
Eagle, ID 83616

If you want the photo returned, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. It takes 6-12 months before you see your photo in the magazine, depending on how many are ahead of you. Emailed photos are okay, but a lot can happen to email and computers in 6-12 months. You really have a better chance of getting it published if you send it by snail mail, but if you insist, the email address is tj@tradbow.com.

I’d like to outline a few other tips for good harvest photos. This applies to the magazine, our online galleries, or even the bulletin board at the sporting goods store. Keep in mind that not everyone who sees your photo is a hunter. Images of hunters straddling their quarry, animals hanging from a hook, or anything with motorized vehicles will not be accepted. Take a few minutes to follow a couple of guidelines and everyone will be happier with the results.

  • Position the animal so the sun, if available, shines onto the animal’s face.
  • Tuck the legs under and sit the animal upright as much as possible.
  • Trim away grass or brush to get a clear view of the animal and remove all blood, guts, arrows, and anything man-made (tents, motorized vehicles, etc.) from the picture.
  • Push the animal’s tongue back into its mouth or cut it off.
  • If the hunter is wearing a brimmed hat, push it back and up so that his/her face shows in the picture.
  • Get in close and fill the frame with the picture.
  • Shoot both vertical and horizontal shots and shoot lots of photos.Click this link to upload harvest photos to our web site.