Upland Hunting (Blackhawk Valley):

I had an opportunity to do a little upland hunting with some collegues at Blackhawk Valley Hunting Preserve in Old Monroe, MO last Friday.  Naturally I brought along the camera.  Talk about a double score, Shooting while Shooting!  Its always fun to combine passions into a single activity.  We shot sporting clays in the morning and hunted that afternoon after a very tasty lunch.  The weather was fantastic, the dogs were outstanding (Sparky and Bocephus), the shooting was great, and the birds were a bonus.  I would recommend Blackhawk to anyone looking for a nice quick hunt close to St. Louis.  I was able to sneak away, have a great day of shooting and hunting, and be home in time to pick up the Grant boyz.  It was top notch.  Check out the images below.  Remember to click on them to fit your screen.

Hunting Singles (D3s, ISO200, 1/1250th, f/2.8 Through Nikkor 85mm)

Into the Glade (D3s, ISO200, 1/640th, f/2.8 through Nikkor 85mm)

The Retrieve (D3s, ISO200, 1/500th, f/5.6 Through Nikkor 85mm)

Sparky (D3s, ISO200, 1/2000th, f/2.8 Through Nikkor 85mm)

Mike (D3s, ISO200, 1/25th, f/5.6 Through Nikkor 85mm)

John (D3s, ISO200, 1/640th, f/2.8, Through Nikkor 85mm)

Dan (D3s, ISO200, 1/400th, f/2.8 through Nikkor 85mm)

Kevin (D3s, ISO200, 1/500th, f/2.8 through Nikkor 85mm)

Our Guide (D3s, ISO200, 1/1000, f/2.8 through Nikkor 85mm)

If you want to check out all the images I took, Click Here! 

Photogs Note:

I was going for kind of a fine art look to my upland hunting images on this trip so I desaturated most of them as a sepia to knock down the nuclear hunter orange.  I used Lightroom 3 for everything.  Lets face it, hunter orange was designed to command your attention and I think it detracts from your images pretty bad.  Its a pretty ugly color, they are my images, so I nuked it.  I also went with the 16:9 cinematic crop in a lot of the images to give more of a wide angle environment feel to them.  I've found that the 85mm is a great lens for upland hunting because it allows you to get close enough so that your not standing on top of people (they have a shotgun you know!) and the prime allows you to shoot one handed (I have a shotgun you know!).  Fiddling with a zoom and holding a shotgun does not work.  I hang the camera over my shoulder and across me with a Black Rapid Strap and let it dangle behind me so the brush doesn't beat up the camera.  It works great.