Tyler State Park Annual Hunt

    So I photographed my first hunt a couple of weeks ago and decided it would be a good time to come back to blogging

    because I had a few photos that I thought told the story well. 

    First off, I have no personal experience hunting. I've been around people who hunt, but have never gone out or honestly

    ever been interested in it. But as a photographer, I am able to show people doing things I've never personally wanted to do 

    myself out of either fear or desire or a combination of both. Hunting was definitely a combo of those things. It was an 

    early morning...I got to Tyler State Park at 6 a.m., so it was still dark out. Although all the hunters wear orange (and I did   

    too), for me there was definitely a fear of being shot (there were over 120 hunters in the park), as well as just the sheer idea

    of hunting. Seeing people kill innocent animals is not necessarily something everyone can deal with. 

    I must say though...whether or not I agree with the idea of hunting, I can respect the men and women who do it. They 

    really know what they are doing and why (controlling the population). I drove around the park for the day with the man in

    the car in the photo below, Brian Flores, park manager, and Dave Noe, the hunter in orange, allowed me to watch him gut 

    a deer (the one pictured in the shot above). Noe was very knowledgeable on the subject, very respectable, and learned 

    everything about what he knows from his father.

     As park manager Brian Flores and I drove around, we saw deer as he tried to steer them back into the park with his truck. 

     He told me that once they hear gunshots in the park, they do know what's going on, and as any other smart animal would, 

     they run and hide.

                               A trail of blood is left behind as Noe drags his doe to the road to be picked up.

    Noe prepares to tag and gut his deer. This was his first catch of the morning, and he had two permits to fulfill. He   
    participates in a program called Hunters Sharing the Harvest, which he also donates money toward processing for, which
    donates the deer meat to area homeless shelters.

    Brian Flores' reflection through the rear view mirror of a park-issued pickup truck. He was searching the perimeter of the 
    park for deer that may have heard gunshots and ran to hide, hoping to herd them back into the park for the hunters.