As a young hunter in high school I payed for my hunting excursions by working in my hometown grocery store. Every month I would look forward to the latest copy of Eastmans’ arriving on the newsstand and would fight with my buddies over who got to take a break first to read it.Thumbing through the features I used the pictures to decide which articles to read first and something about unique photos that tied me to the hunt pulled me in fast.
These photos pushed me to start my growth as a photographer and I got my first 35mm film camera as a graduation present. Several years later I moved into the digital camera world and memory cards replaced the little cylinders rattling around in my pack.
As magazine pictures progressed in quality so did the pictures in the social media and digital world. Our partners at Sitka Gear started the Diverge photo contest five years ago and with it we started to see more creative support photos come in for feature stories. The contest encouraged people to look at their hunts and find unique moments that don’t usually get photographed. The things we see that people who don’t hunt won’t experience. To diverge from the normal shots and find the moments and places on a hunt that are the exception to the rule.
https://vimeo.com/180926421
Trophy photos got better and with the launch of the #diverge5 contest we are excited to see what all of you as Eastmans’ subscribers submit to this contest.
Make sure that you take a few extra minutes to get great pictures to go with your stories and make sure that you keep the camera out to capture the moments that we as hunters take for granted. Share your pictures on Instagram and Facebook with the #diverge5 tag to be entered in Sitka Gear’s contest. If you want to catch our attention here at Eastmans’ use the #myhuntstory with all of your social media pictures.
Good luck this fall, we hope you are able to tell your story and share great pictures with all of us.
