By Dave Sheedy
When most people here the word "hunting" it brings up images of rifles, bows, orange vests and treestands. For me hunting has a different meaning. I am not a licensesd hunter, in fact I never took my safety test. I enjoy hunting with friends and family but I also hunt with a different tool, my camera.
I received my first camera during the Christmas of 1999. It was an old Pentax ME-Super with a 250mm lens. I tried to take some photographs of whitetailed deer and soon realized what a challenge it was. Later that day I bought some hunting magazines thinking that they would help me learn more about the deer I was pursuing and they did. I subscribed to several magazines and wanted to start hunting but it was to late to take my test. I decided to just take my camera with me, I was unsuccessful until one day my friend Josh, a seasoned hunter, helped me photograph my very first deer. And then as anyone that remembers there first encounter with a deer in the wild knows, I was hooked.
I became better and better at taking pictures, I knew where the animals were and I knew when they would be there. I knew that I wasn't a "real" hunter though and that always made me feel like a fake. Then one day I was showing off pictures I had taken of a 6-point buck to a group of my hunter friends. It was the first buck I had ever photographed, and the prints looked great. My friend looked at me and said, "You would make a great hunter" at that moment I knew that I was a hunter, maybe not in the usual way we think of hunters but a hunter nonetheless. What is hunting? Is it merely killing an animal? I don't think so. I think hunting is sitting at your favorite spot in the woods, relaxing, and forgetting you troubles for a time, and if an animal happens by you can shoot it, that is the end reward, be it with Winchester or Kodak.
