Comedian Jay Leggett dies after killing deer

[DisgustipatedinCA]

247. I have no problem with shooting deer or even endangered animals, as long as there's a challenge.

I'm referring to wildlife photography, of course.

If you have a gun, you can shoot animals in harsh light or in really nice light. They'll die either way. But if you're shooting with a camera, you need to have the exposure nailed, which means manual exposure in the case of a fast-moving animal (is that animal lighter or darker than 18% gray, and will it be moving into a different lighting environment?). Your focus needs to be tack-sharp. You will have needed to decide whether you're tracking the animal or hoping for a still shot. You need to stop down enough to get the best image your camera can give, but you also typically need to get as much light as possible through the aperture. And at long focal lengths, you need to decide whether or not your closed-down aperture is going to be enough to get the deer's eye and nose in focus. You need to decide whether or not you're going to use fill flash, and you need to be ready if you are. If you're hand-holding or tripod- or monopod-mounted, you need to know what your minimum shutter speed can be in order for you to get a good shot. You need to know your camera's low light ISO abilities (I can clean up ISO 3200. I'll take a newsworthy shot at ISO 6400, but it will never grace the pages of a wildlife magazine). On top of that, you also need to get lucky, or at least be ready when luck presents itself. Finally, you need to do all those other things I forgot to mention that other photographers will be iterating in reply to this post.

As to the OP and the discussion around it:

-I'm not going to get down on deer hunters, but I will issue a challenge. If you want to up your game, put the gun down and try a camera. It's a lot more challenging.

-I have no sympathy at all for those who hunt endangered animals. I'm on the animals' side.