Pheasant Shoot

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to photograph a pheasant shoot in the countryside about an hour west of London. Pheasant shooting in England is both sport and social activity. The pheasants, a species introduced to England long ago, are bred, raised and released in the millions annually and then nurtured with feed and forage. Expenses are shared among a group of hunters. This was a driven shoot—the birds are flushed toward the hunters by “beaters” walking the woods and fields—and shot in flight. The hunters use shotguns; dogs fetch the downed birds. I photographed this using a small Fuji x100F mirrorless camera with a fixed medium wide angle lens (35 mm equivalent; no zoom; no telephoto), which was a challenge. Click here for a gallery.