In this episode, we dive deep into the career of Lance Krueger, an acclaimed wildlife photographer known for his close encounters with some guy of the most elusive creatures. The conversation begins with Lance sharing his childhood memories of how hunting magazines ignited his passion for photography. He recalls dreaming of capturing the stunning images he admired, never realizing that he would one day take those same photographs for the very magazines that inspired him. Fun fact: he has more Field & Stream covers than any other photographer, to this day.
After saving diligently from a summer job at a cafeteria in his youth, he acquired his first camera and lens, and the rest is history. With each roll of film, he learned the nuances of framing, exposure, and how to capture the spirit and essence of the animals he loved photographing. The anecdote of his first roll of film, where he impressed a local photographer with his natural eye for composition, serves as a testament to his innate talent.
Throughout his career, Lance has forged a unique relationship with his subjects. He has particularly focused on capturing white-tailed deer, despite the common belief that they are the challenging subject to photograph. Lance emphasizes the importance of understanding the animal's behavior and habitat. It’s here that he distinguishes himself from many wildlife photographers who rely heavily on large telephoto lenses. Instead, he employs smaller equipment and focuses on getting as close to the wildlife as possible. His innovative techniques include building custom blinds to draw deer in closer, ultimately leading to more intimate and impactful captures.
With over 30 years of professional experience under his belt, Lance now offers the “Whitetail Dream Buck Up-Close Master Class” where he shares his wealth of knowledge with aspiring photographers. These classes focus on strategies to overcome the nuances of photographing elusive wildlife and emphasize the art of getting close, not just in physical proximity but also in composition. He insists that one does not need to have the most expensive equipment to achieve magazine-quality images; rather, it’s about understanding the light, the environment, and the animal itself.
One of the most exciting tales that emerged during the episode is Lance’s recent encounter with a palmated buck, a rare deer that resembles a mix of a fallow deer and a moose. After a grueling search that involved numerous sits on a 10,000 acre ranch, for a deer that hadn't been seen in the previous two months. His meticulous preparation paid off when he finally spotted the buck in a stunning moment, capturing thousands of photographs from a mere 20 yards away. The thrill of that experience underscores the exhilarating unpredictability of wildlife photography—a theme that resonates deeply throughout this episode.
Listeners are treated to practical advice throughout the discussion, from tips on choosing the right equipment to the significance of local knowledge in wildlife behavior. Lance’s passion for the art form is palpable, and it serves as a reminder of what it means to be a true artist, risking time and effort for the perfect shot. Furthermore, the episode wraps up with discussion surrounding Lance's annual photography calendar—a collector's item which not only features stunning images but also shares stories and insights behind each capture.
Make sure you visit Lance's pages:
www.lance-krueger.com
IG: "lance_krueger"
George Blitch:
SonofaBlitch.com
AmericanMadeMaps.com
IG: "
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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more information and sign up fora free consultation.
You'll be glad you did.
Hey, Lance, how you doing today?
I'm doing good, man.
(00:44):
How are you Fantastic?
Well, listen, man, we got a lotto chat about.
Obviously, we had a podcastscheduled for the other day, and
you had quite a neat experiencethat we needed to go ahead and
postpone this for a couple days,and I definitely want to dive
into that one there too, butI'll leave that as a little
teaser.
What I want to know is a littlebit of background for you.
(01:06):
You can kind of tell ourlisteners you know where you
grew up and then how you gotinvolved with being one of the
premier photographers forwildlife in this entire country.
Man, I'd love to just kind ofhave you, you know, chat about
that and we'll kind of threadthe needle from there.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
All right.
Well, I was actually born inthe Central Texas area in San
Antonio, Was the largest babyever born in the San Antonio
Methodist Hospital at 11 pounds10 ounces.
But I don't know that.
You really wanted to know allthat.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's a fun fact, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's interesting, I think I was the largest baby
born there into the 80ssometimes.
So anyway.
But I grew up in the CentralTexas area Seguin Gonzalez area
and then my dad moved to SouthTexas for a job and he ended up
when I was 16, managing a ranchdown here in South Texas, the La
Coma Red Gate Ranch, owned bythe Benson family, and so I had
(02:04):
always wanted to take picturesof wildlife like I'd seen in the
hunting magazines, becausegrowing up, you know, my dad was
a gunsmith in the SkiingGonzalez area, had a gun shop
Earl's Gun Shop for many years,for like 25 years, and so I had
always gotten the huntingmagazines.
We fished and hunted everyweekend and so growing up,
(02:25):
seeing the photos in the huntingmagazines, I always thought,
man, I would love to shootphotos like what I see in the
hunting magazine, of deer andturkeys and all that kind of
stuff.
And so we would, you know, wewere subscribed to all those
magazines and I would actually,you know, after we're done
reading them, everybody wouldread them cover to cover.
You know, my brother and my dadand I no-transcript, and I
(03:27):
always just thought, you know, Iwould love to shoot photos like
those.
I never thought I would beshooting photos for those same
magazines one day, and so Iwould just kind of like drift
off to sleep and dream aboutthat stuff.
And so my dad bought a camera, aCanon AE-1 camera with a normal
lens and a small telephoto likean 80 to 200 type of zoom kind
(03:51):
of thing which is standard inthe day.
But I was 12 years old, 13years old.
He was afraid I was going tobreak it and that was like a big
purchase for them.
That was something my parentsdidn't have a ton of money, and
so that was like reallysomething that was, you know,
nice and a luxury for them tohave.
And they were afraid thatsomething that was made of glass
(04:12):
and, you know, plastic andstuff like that, that I would,
you know, drop it or break it orwhatever.
So they never let me, you know,really touch it or use it or
anything like that.
So it kind of made me mad, andso I said you know what, one day
I'm going to get my own cameraand I'm going to shoot my own
photos.
So it wasn't until I was 16, uh,back in 1985, that I uh got a
(04:33):
job working at Luby's cafeteriacleaning tables for a summer.
And so I saved up $300 and Iwent to a veterinarian that I
knew uh, that was knew that wasDr Steve Benson.
That was, you know, related toall the Benson family and he was
a wildlife photographer and sowe were taking some of that.
(04:54):
My dad was managing the LaCumbra Red Gate Ranch and you
know it was a, you know, exoticgame ranch and they had, you
know, all these exotic animalsas well as white tails, but it's
also a big quail hunting ranchalso know all these exotic
animals as well as white tails,but it's also a big quail
hunting ranch also.
And so we would have to takethe quail dogs, the English
pointers, into the vet with mydad to get them to get their
checkups and shots and stufflike that.
So he had all these photos,steve Benson had all these
(05:16):
photos on his wall of his vetbusiness, and so while we were
in there having him check outthe dogs, I told him that I was
interested in buying a camera toshoot photos at the ranch.
And what did he recommend?
So he actually, you know,slotted off like a half hour,
like on the next Tuesday, andsaid come in at this time and
you know we'll talk and you knowI'll let you know what to get.
(05:38):
So I went in and I said I've got$300 thinking that was a lot of
money back in 1985, or Ithought it was and he said, okay
, well, let's see what we canget for $300.
So I ended up getting a CanonAE-1 program camera and a Canon
100 to 300, uh 5.6, uh aperturezoom, and I didn't get the
(06:00):
normal lens.
Like most everybody at the time.
The normal lens was a 50millimeter.
You know no-transcript since Iwas a little kid.
So I got this 100 to 300 zoomand basically ordered it in.
(06:21):
The lens was 150 dollars, thecamera was 150 dollars and
compared to cameras nowadaysthat are many times more
expensive than that with digitaland mirrorless and all that
stuff, that was actually really,really cheap.
So but it was perfect for a 16year old kid that you know was
just saving money from cleaningtables.
So I bought that camera, got itin and my next question to Steve
(06:45):
was okay, what kind of film doI put in?
I mean, it was, you know, filmback in those days print film,
slide film, what and what do Iset all these dials on?
I had no clue how to even turnthe camera on or run it.
So he said, okay, we'll come innext Thursday at 3 PM and I'll
show you what to do.
So he told me to buy a roll ofKodachrome 64 film uh, which is
(07:10):
slide film, and uh, which Ibought.
And he said this is what you do, this is your shutter speed,
this is aperture, this is ISO,this is you know kind of what
you do to try to get a goodexposure.
And he told me about the sunny16 roll.
And so I wrote all that stuffdown, took notes on it and went
(07:32):
out to the ranch like thefollowing day and shot that
first roll of 36 exposure filmand got the photos back and I
ran into a photographer atBritain's photo which was a
local camera store down here inSouth Texas, in the Rio Grande
Valley down in McAllen, texas,where I'm from, and that
(07:53):
photographer looked at him.
I told her it was my first rollof film.
She was like the studiophotographer there.
She looked at him and she said,man, you've really got a
natural eye for composition.
I was like, okay, I didn't know, I was just shooting photos of
stuff at the ranch and my bird,dog and stuff like that.
And so she gave me like acouple of sheets to put the
slides in and looked at them.
(08:14):
And so then I bought anotherroll of film and it was one of
those deals where it was alreadyafter the summer, after I was
done working at Luby's, startingto be fall, and so I wasn't
working during the summeranymore because I had to go back
to school.
And so I I'd had, since I was10 years old, a lawn mowing
business, and that's what Iwould typically do is do the
lawn mowing business, you know,like throughout the week.
(08:35):
You know, have my mom drop meoff, kind of thing, and you know
, mow a yard with my brother andand uh, would split the money
from there, and so we didn'tmake a whole lot of money at the
time.
You know, mowing a yard waslike 20 bucks, you know, and you
know 10 of it was for mybrother and 10 of it was for me.
So it took a while to be ableto afford, you know, film and
developing.
So I bought another roll offilm and then I had to basically
(08:59):
shoot a roll of film one weekand then make enough money to
pay for the developing the nextweek.
So it was like every other weekI'd get a roll of film and
develop it.
So, anyway, I started shootingphotos and basically shot photos
until I was 19 years old.
I was in college and was justshooting photos, just trying to
(09:20):
build a file of wildlife photos.
And specifically the thing thatinterested me the most about
that first roll of film, what Iphotographed is, you know, a
white-tailed doe that Iphotographed and the ranch had
all kinds of exotics.
You know, the first photo Iactually shot was of a record
book 25-inch black buck antelopeand that they had told me about
(09:41):
on the ranch, and I actuallysaw him and he was the first
thing that I photographed.
And I photographed bonnie buckswith new babies, zebras,
ostrich.
They even had rhinoceros on theranch.
You know, it was like really,really you know cool stuff that
they had.
But it was that whitetail doeand that fawn that excited me
the most.
And so, you know, after that Ijust kind of loved whitetails
(10:07):
and so just kind of concentratedon those and, you know, even
though everybody was telling meyou know that's the hardest
thing to photograph, they're the, you know, they're the smartest
and the most elusive and allthat kind of stuff, I just
wanted to photograph whitetails,I didn't care.
So, anyway, I started shootingphotos, accumulating a file
primarily whitetail deer.
I didn't care.
So, anyway, I um startedshooting photos, accumulating a
file, uh, primarily whitetaildeer.
(10:28):
I'd photograph exotics when Isaw them.
I'd photograph, you know, birds, songbirds.
I'd photograph turkeys.
I'd, you know, do fishingphotos, cause my dad was an avid
bass fisherman and I grew upbass fishing and thinking I
wanted to be a professional bassfisherman.
One day you know which you knowI decided to be a professional
bass fisherman.
One day you know which you knowI decided to be a wildlife
photographer instead of doingthat and so just kept uh
shooting photos.
And when I was 19, I startedsending a few photos into some
(10:54):
local state magazines and got myfirst photos published in a
magazine called texas huntersdirectory.
You've heard of it.
Okay, so, I, I, you know it wasa small magazine at the time.
Uh, they basically told me wedon't pay for photos but it we
have helped a lot ofphotographers start out.
And so what we will do is wewill give you six copies of the
(11:17):
magazine, If you get anythingpublished, and you can take
those and do what they call tearsheets, which is terror, you
know your published photos outof the magazine and then you
send those to like the nextmagazine and it's like a
credibility kind of thing, so,anyway, so I sent them a bunch
of slides that I'd been, youknow, accumulating over the
years and gotten everything kindof edited down to some of my
(11:39):
best stuff, and they ended upusing one of my photos as a
color shot inside and I thinkfive black and white photos
inside.
And so I thought that was great.
Um, because my one of my idolsat the time that I looked up to
was Jerry Smith, who's fromAlice, Texas, and you know he
was like one of the big fieldand stream photographers at the
(12:00):
time.
And why in the world he wasselling to them is probably
cause he was getting paid for it, and they just told me that,
you know, cause I was a new guythat, you know, never sold
anything.
You know that they didn't pay.
So anyway, he only had, I think, one or two shots and I had six
.
So I was like really proud ofmyself that I had more than
Jerry Smith, you know.
So, anyway, so they sent me themagazines and then I started
(12:21):
sending, you know, the tearsheets into other magazines and
you know, started, you know,trying to sell stuff.
Couldn't really sell stuff.
So when I was in college at theUniversity of Texas Pan American
, which is University of Texas,Rio Grande Valley, now down in
Edinburgh, Texas, I was workingon getting a business marketing
(12:42):
degree, I got to know the editorof the college magazine, which
is called Rio Magazine, whichRio is, you know, river, in
Spanish.
So I had just written aresearch paper about ranching in
South Texas and I had writtenabout like three or four of the
ranches that I was photographingat the time.
And he said, hey, could youtake this and whittle it down to
(13:05):
one ranch and talk aboutranching on that, that ranch,
how they do it?
And, um, he said, then youcould write an article about it.
And, you know, turn yourresearch paper into an article
and you know we'll see aboutyour photos and maybe publish
those with it.
So I submitted that to him andthey published the article and I
(13:26):
think I had like nine photosinside or something like that.
And I was really surprisedbecause he said after the fact,
after he gave me a copy of themagazine, he said here's a check
for $90 for a photo textpackage.
And so he, I got paid 90 bucks.
So that was 19 years old when Iwas in college, and then I
(13:49):
started submitting more and morestuff and then, you know, the
next place I got published uh,statewide was Texas trophy
hunters magazine.
Back in 91, I had the cover ofa Texas trophy hunters and then
they ran an article that I wrotefor them with all the photos
inside, about a big buck that Ihad for them, with all the
photos inside about a big buckthat I had photographed from
three years old to seven and ahalf years old, and I wrote the
(14:10):
article showing, you know, inthe photos, how he had gotten
bigger and smaller, you know,different years depending on his
age, depending on droughtconditions in Texas and stuff
like that.
So that was my next step ofgetting published was with the
state magazines, but I actuallygot paid for it and I learned
you need to negotiate prices upfront and find out what their
(14:32):
photo pay rates are before yousubmit to them.
So then, the next place I gotpublished, I sent them to a
little bit bigger magazine andthat was Bowhunter magazine, and
I had the cover on Bowhunter afew months later, months later.
So anyway, it just kind ofstarted from there and by the
age of 21 I was a part-timeprofessional, put myself through
college working at that camerastore, britain's photo supply,
(14:56):
which I took my first roll offilm into.
I worked there from 19 till Iwas 21 and then quit there and
was going full-time photography,Not just wildlife, I shot
weddings and portraits and allkinds of stuff and just trying
to make my cameras pay forthemselves.
Plus, put myself throughcollege, because my parents
didn't have the money to send meto college but I, so I had to
(15:18):
work a semester and then pay forthe next semester, and so it
took me seven years to get amarketing degree.
That usually takes most peoplefour years.
So I was on the seven year.
Basically the day after Igraduated in December, I had set
up a flight to fly to Montanaon assignment for a magazine to
(15:53):
photograph mule deer uh, for anarticle that the editor had gone
on a hunt out there but heneeded live live mule deer
photos on the property.
So he got everything set up,everything paid for to the ranch
and so, you know, I've beentraveling ever since and so I've
, you know, traveled for thelast, you know, 35 years or
(16:15):
however long it's been 30 yearsall over the United States,
Canada, Alaska, all over theplace.
You know, photographing wildlifein general and I've gotten to
the place where you know,basically at 24 years old, when
I graduated from college, Iconsidered myself full-time
photographer because I wasn'tgoing to college or anything
(16:35):
like that, it was just 100%photography and I've been doing
it, you know, full-time for youknow 30 plus years, you know
part-time, 35 total, andactually this summer will be 40
years since I picked up a cameraback in 1985, the summer of 85.
So the summer of 2025 will be40 years.
So I've been shooting photos along time.
(16:57):
I'm one of the old guys in thebusiness now.
I used to be the youngest guyin the business doing this
professionally back in the 90sand you know been doing it ever
since, and now I'm one of the,you know, the OGs, as they call
it.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Well, you know something that you do too, kind
of like you were looking up atthose particular photographers.
You're like I want to be able todo that, and you know, and you
eclipsed them on that time whenyou had the six published.
But something that you kind ofaspired to is to grow that.
And then now you're also givingback.
You're offering master coursesthrough your website.
(17:32):
There people can sign up to,where you can kind of teach
people how to get in and getclose, the right ways to take
photos and have these, you know,cover quality images that you
can come out to, cause a lot ofthese are really close
encounters.
You know, you're notnecessarily using these crazy,
crazy long lenses I'm sure youdo it sometimes but you're
trying to teach people on themethods to be able to get in
(17:54):
there, get close and have thesereally high quality images.
And I'd love for you to talk alittle bit about your
masterclass and kind of you knowhow you're able to mentor some
other people to kind of get intothis space and kind of keep
this type of lifestyle going.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So if you wouldn't mind, maybe, chatting a little
bit about that and what thoseopportunities look like.
Yeah, the one of the bigmisconceptions or actually two
misconceptions that people have,is that I'm using huge
telephoto lenses, you know, likethousand millimeter lenses,
photograph and deer at 500 yardsaway.
Meter lenses photograph anddeer at 500 yards away, and most
of my photos are 50 yards orless, with most of my cover
shots being 20 to 30 yards.
(18:31):
And so through my classes andthrough the years I've developed
techniques that allow me to bevery close to wildlife.
But I don't have to use big,huge lenses Like that first lens
that I had, that 100 to 300,300 millimeter.
You take that and divide it bywhat was at the time the normal
(18:52):
lens, which is a 50 millimeterlens, which is kind of like what
RICs, kind of our perspective,and so you take 300 divided by
50, that comes out to a 6Xmagnification.
When you think about a 6X pairof binoculars or a 6X rifle
scope, that's not really thatmuch magnification.
It does bring it in six timescloser but it's nothing.
(19:14):
You would try to photograph adeer at even a hundred yards
away, you know, with a 300, youwould really want to have that
deer, you know, like you know,really want to have that deer,
you know, like you know, 20yards away, to get, you know,
some decent photos of him.
And so I don't use big, hugetelephoto lenses.
My lenses that I use for sincethe early nineties was a two
(19:36):
lens setup, which it was a Canon300 millimeter 2.8 lens, point
eight lens and a 500 millimeterfour point five or an F4 lens,
and so basically the 300 was asix X magnification and the 500
was a 10 X.
When you take 500 divided by 50, it comes out to a 10 X
magnification.
That was better for longerdistance type stuff.
(19:59):
So I didn't have to be quite asclose.
But you think about it, a 10xpair of binoculars is kind of a
standard pair of binoculars.
They are not really, and evenlike rifle scopes, you know,
three to nine.
You know, when I was growing upwas kind of the standard scope
magnification.
Uh, now they're going up to thesuper high, like my son is 18
and he's just like really intolong range shooting with his bow
(20:20):
and gun and all this kind ofguns and and so he's saying, dad
, you know, you need to, youknow, change out those old
scopes for, like you know, 16 to24.
And he's talking about allthese huge magnifications.
Well, those lenses aren't evenin the spectrum of the new, you
know, scopes that they usenowadays.
And so I had to figure out, youknow, cause most here, growing
(20:42):
up in Texas and being you know,taught uh, deer hunting here in
Texas.
You know, because most here,growing up in texas and being
you know, taught uh deer huntinghere in texas.
You know the typical setup isyou have a feeder set up and you
have a blind that's 100 yardsaway, and usually it's an
elevated blind that's above them, uh, which I don't understand
most of the time because it's onflat ground a lot of times, you
know.
So what's the reason for havingan elevated blind?
(21:02):
You know, other than you knowit makes you feel like you're
hunting more or something.
But anyway, um, that's thetypical setup.
Well, 100 yards with a 300millimeter lens.
When I started out with it wasa little brown dot in the photo,
and so I figured out okay, I'vegot to get closer.
And so I started.
I I started making my ownblinds, because this was back in
(21:23):
the 80s and early 90s, whenthere was no pop-up blinds.
I had to build my own blinds outof plywood or brush blinds or
just camoing out and stuff likethat.
But I also made a.
I had a local upholstery storemake a cover for a Kodak I can't
(21:45):
remember the brand Kodakprojector stand and basically
it's four legs and then it hadlike a table on top of it and
that's where you put yourprojector and it had like legs
that, you know, went in and out.
And so I had this localupholstery shop make a cover
with like a sock going out whereI could put my lens out of it,
and I made my own pop-up blindwhere I could put my lens out of
(22:06):
it, and I made my own pop-upblind.
So I started placing thoseblinds, those wood blinds that I
would make, or brush blinds orthat little pop-up blind, you
know, like 30 yards away insteadof 100 yards away to fill up
the frame a little closer.
And so I was doing that, youknow, over 35 years ago.
And so I've developed over theyears, having traveled all over
(22:28):
the United States photographingwhitetails in just about every
region of the United States andCanada and every habitat you can
imagine, trying to take what Ilearned here in Texas and apply
that to what I learned, you know, around the United States, you
know, having to tweak things andchange things based on the
situation and every property'sdifferent.
(22:50):
And so, basically, I've learnedand kind of perfected the
techniques of how to get very,very close to whitetail deer and
especially heavily huntedwhitetail deer.
And so and those are the onesthat taught me the most was, you
know, deer that are heavily,heavily hunted, and so you know
(23:11):
they're like heavily managed,you know, because to have a
property that's heavily, youknow, that's that grows big deer
, you've got to shoot a lot ofdeer, you know call box does
especially, and so those areyour worst ones to try to fool,
because those are, you know,they're trying to raise fawns,
they're thinking thatsomething's wanting to eat them
ever since the day they wereborn and they're also the ones
(23:33):
that are that are harvested themost.
And so these deer, you know,get very, very spooky on a
heavily managed place, eventhough they let the bucks grow
to maturity and all that stuff.
And, you know, let the deer,you know, show their full antler
potential and full bodypotential, getting, you know, to
full size at five, six, sevenyears old.
But those bucks get very, verysmart over those years,
(23:55):
especially when they see so manyof their buddies get shot right
next to them, you know.
So they wise up, you know, withall that negative human
interaction.
So I deal with a lot of placeslike that because the magazines
want photos of big, big whitetails.
They like big rack deer and so,you know, not unusually big,
but they just want somethingthat somebody can kind of dream
about.
It's kind of like Playboymagazine.
(24:16):
You don't want to see, you know, like, you know, the standard
girl.
You want to see somebody that'slike a little cut above the
rest, and so they want to showphotos of deer on the covers of
magazines that are a little bitcut above the rest, you know, a
little bit bigger, but notsomething that's, you know,
ungodly big, like a lot of thebreeder bucks nowadays and stuff
like that.
Um, so anyway, so I'vedeveloped these techniques and I
(24:38):
started three years ago doingthese master classes and you
know I've been doing them beforelike on a one-on-one basis and
I still do that to this day.
(25:00):
Ranch here in south texas thathas, you know, a native
whitetail herd that you know ison fourth 4200 acres that just,
you know, grows some really,really big deer.
They're very, you know, uh, theowner of the property is very
management minded and heunderstands whitetails about as
well as anybody I've met in thebusiness.
So, anyway, so I teach peoplethat you don't have to have
these monstrous lenses.
I teach them how to get closeto the wildlife or get the
(25:22):
wildlife close to them so thatthey can fill the frames, their
photos, and fill the frames ofyou know photos like you see up
here, that you know it's not alittle tiny brown dot, it's an
impactful image of a whitetaildeer and you can see every
detail, down to the eyelashesand everything else.
But it's because you got thatdeer close to you.
(25:42):
You're using lenses that are alot less expensive.
Uh, you're using lenses thatyou know don't have a lot of
magnification so that they arevery, very sharp, because
they're not these big monstrouslenses that have all these you
know design flaws in them andstuff like that, and and, plus,
it saves you a lot of money.
So, anyway, so the class reallypays for itself and the
(26:03):
equipment that you don't have tobuy.
Uh, that's so super,astronomically expensive.
I mean you can buy those super,you know expensive lenses.
But what?
What people don't realize theysee my lenses.
You know I got the big whitelenses like you see on the
sidelines at football games, nflgames and college games, but
they're not that muchmagnification.
They're actually big aroundbecause they're gathering light.
(26:26):
It's not so much themagnification.
Like right now, I changed fromthat earlier system that I told
you the 302.8 and the 500 F4system, two lens system to where
I'm using now because I'mstarting to shoot more video for
social media Cause that's, youknow, kind of the way things are
going, and so I've moved down100 millimeters for each of
(26:47):
those two main lenses that I useas a two lens setup.
So instead of a 302 point,excuse me a 302.8, I'm now using
a 200 millimeter F2.
So it's got more lightgathering capability, capability
, but it's a little bit wider.
Uh, instead of the 500 f4, I'mshooting a 400 millimeter 2.8
lens.
So a 400 is an 8x magnification.
(27:10):
I went from 10x down to 8x.
I went from a 300, which was 6x, down to a 200 millimeter,
which is 4x magnification.
You know people use 4x scopesfor, like hunting, cape, buffalo
, like in close range type stuff.
I mean that it's like a closerange, you know, 50 yards or
(27:30):
less kind of situation.
With the same magnification andrifle scopes, nobody would use
a 4x pair of binoculars.
That that's hardly anymagnification whatsoever.
So anyway, so I teach them howto get close, how to get the
wildlife close to them, how tobasically be undetected, how to
overcome the eyes, ears and noseof the whitetail deer.
I teach them how to defeat whatI call the danger detection
(27:53):
system.
You know, whitetail deer hastheir head up and that danger
detection system is constantlyscanning with their ears, their
eyes and their nose All that isdetected with that head.
That's on a periscope.
So I teach them how to overcomethose three things which, as
you know, with a white-taileddeer they've got some of the
best eyes, the ears and nose inthe animal kingdom.
(28:15):
And so, anyway, so that's whatI teach them.
I teach them about how to setthings up to be able to get
cover quality type photos.
So it's a three-day class overfour days.
It's a half day where they showup midday and they're in the
field that first afternoon, andthen they have two full days
(28:37):
after that and then they have alast half a day of morning
before they leave, you know,after breakfast, the, the on the
fourth day.
So it's three full days.
I limit the class to six peopleso that each person can have
one morning or afternoon sit inthe blind with me and I'm just
there with them, one-on-one,answering any questions.
(28:58):
You know, as we're whispering,you know we're not doing that
while the bucks are there orwhatever, but basically I, you
know, tell them okay, you knowyou need to change this, you
need to do that, and I work withthem on their setup and how
they're, you know, set up toshoot photos and I'm just there
to advise them and or just shootthe bull if they want, and so,
anyway, so that's, that's one ofthe cool things that we do.
(29:21):
And then we teach the class,basically middle of the day and,
um, you know, do that betweensits, and we even do it after in
the evening, because I have somuch information to share with
them and everybody that hastaken it have just been rabid
supporters of the classes andjust, I mean one guy wrote an
article about it Is it worthtaking Lance Kruger's, you know,
(29:43):
uh, white tail dream bucks upclose masterclass, and it's just
, it's been a real huge success.
So, anyway, so I'm uh going tobe offering those again this
fall, uh, probably in Novembersometime, and uh, you know, if
anybody's interested, you knowthey can contact me.
I don't have, like, the dateset up yet, so there's no
masterclass.
You know button, I've alreadytaken that off because we've
(30:04):
already done the ones for 2024.
But if anybody wants to dosomething like in Velvet, wants
to come down to some of myranches or something, or you
know, do you know somethingspecific, you know I can book
them on a daily basis.
You know day rate type basisand you know teach them
one-on-one so they don't have to, you know, have five other
people that are trying to askquestions and stuff like that.
(30:26):
So anyway, so I offer that onan individual basis but also as
a group setting as well.
You know where all the food andlodging and all that kind of
stuff is provided.
So it's a great time and youknow deer camp feel and you know
everybody sitting around in theevening around the dinner table
looking at photos, whateverybody got during the day,
and it's just, you know it'sjust an electric charged
(30:48):
situation because everybody'ssupporting each other and
high-fiving over.
You know success with animalsthat you know we didn't think we
would see.
And you know there's othertimes that you know we don't see
the deer that we're after at aspecific spot the whole time.
We're there the whole week, youknow, but other times, you know
, people get photos of the samedeer, so it's a lot of fun and
you know, great learningexperience and you know Las
(31:10):
Reyes, this is just anincredible place and you know
good food and good fellowshipand it's just a fun time.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Man, I mean, that sounds like checking all the
boxes and I love that you knowpeople who want to kind of get
into.
This is a really great fasttrack way to get in there and
learn how to do this with one ofthe best I mean you have been I
think probably one of the mostI know you're the most you know
covered photo photographer asfar as on field and stream.
I know that you've been in somany different books and
magazines.
(31:42):
I mean one of the mostpublished, uh, white tail, deer
and wild Turkey photographers inthe world.
Uh, and I know that there's somany things that you've put out
there.
Uh, I love that you also have acalendar each year that you put
out.
Um and I and again, well, I'llhave all the show notes, uh,
below air in the show notes, allthe links, but, uh, you know,
to your website there, uh, to goahead and pick that up and it
(32:02):
looks amazing.
You know, I want to kind ofbring it back around to.
Well, you know what I teased inthe very beginning and you were
talking about sometimes you'reout there for multiple days in a
row.
You got a target buck in yourIf you want to talk about the
book that you recently had anencounter with, which was the
reason why we had to kind ofpause this for a couple days,
(32:24):
because it's just phenomenal.
I know that that's somethingthat people will be able to see
in the future.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We're not going to show it today, but if you
wouldn't go ahead and talk aboutwhat made that book in
particular so special, Well, Ihad seen some video back in
mid-December of a white buckthat I had only seen one of this
type of buck before and what itis is he's a palmated buck and
(32:53):
basically looks like he's partfallow deer or part moose.
You know he's just got thesebig paddles, you know big palms
on his antlers instead of mainbeams that are kind of rounded
and that kind of thing.
So I contacted, I rememberedthe deer from December but I was
(33:14):
photographing on so manyproperties all over the state.
Basically the whole month ofDecember and January I was, I
was gone photographing in ablind.
The only time I was basicallyback home, uh, was for Christmas
and new years and stuff likethat, and so and and plus my son
was bow hunting at several ofthese properties, you know,
throughout the year trying toget his first buck with a bow,
and so that was like thatactually has been like a three
(33:36):
year, you know timeframe of himtrying to get one and you know
shooting at a couple and they,you know his bow was too loud
and they ducked you know duckedthe string or whatever you call
it, and anyway, jumped thestring, that's the word and so
you know, went right over theirback and all that kind of stuff.
So, anyway, so he was with mebut I had found out about this
(33:56):
buck back in December,mid-december, and I wanted to
contact the landowner because Ihad met him previously but I'd
never photographed there.
And so I remember that buck andI was just thinking, man, I
would love to have that deer inmy book and I'm working on a
book project that I'm going tobe photographing for for the
next couple of years that I hopeto produced and published here
(34:19):
in the next few years.
But basically I thought I wouldlove to have that deer in my
book because he's such a rarity.
The last time I had seen apalmated deer was back in like
1995.
When I was like 25, 26 yearsold, I was guiding hunters in
(34:43):
Michigan and one of the one ofthe hunters on the ranch, my
hunter, shot a palmated deer onthe ranch and but I never got to
photograph it because I didn'teven know the deer even existed.
He, he showed up and I was likeyou know, shoot that buck.
I mean, he's a, he's a reallyunusual buck and he shot it and
the only photos I got of him waswhen the deer was dead.
Never got any photos of himalive because I didn't even know
he even existed.
And so here it is, you know, 30years later, and I had never
(35:08):
seen a palmated deer.
Even though I've been to someof the top properties in North
America, seen thousands andthousands of mature whitetails,
I had not seen another palmateddeer.
Well, when I found saw the videoof this deer, I contacted the
landowner like late Januarybecause I was just gone and had
(35:28):
everything scheduled with allkinds of landowners all over
Texas and and going to the hillcountry and central Texas and
all over South Texas.
And so I said hey, is there anyway I could try to photograph
this deer?
I'd really like to get him inthis upcoming book that I'm
working on.
And we set things up for me toarrive like the 31st of January,
on Friday night, which was justthis last week, and so I
(35:51):
arrived Friday night.
He said here's the problemWe've got 10,000 acres, we have
no feeders on the ranch.
Problem We've got 10,000 acres,we have no feeders on the ranch
, we have no blinds on the ranchand we have no game cameras.
We saw this deer back inDecember.
We saw him a few times andthere was like a one mile area
that they had seen him and theysaid but we have no idea where
(36:15):
he is, we don't reallyconcentrate on that part of the
ranch because it's notconsidered like one of the
better parts of the ranch.
They've got like at the farsouth end of the ranch it's more
bottom land habitat, and hesaid that's where our bigger
deer are.
We, we go down to that end ofthe ranch most of the time and
so I said well, that's the deerI want to photograph.
I don't want to just photographjust any other deer, I'm going
(36:37):
to try to photograph him andthat's one of the things that
I've done over the years.
That I do a lot of is I willlike trophy hunt, which to me,
trophy hunting is when you goafter a specific deer or a
specific class or size of deer.
Um, and I will go.
I will fine tune that down towhere I'm going after a buck,
(37:02):
will fine tune that down towhere I'm going after a buck,
and so that has taught me a lotof how to figure out whitetails
over the last 30 something years.
And so we set up based on localknowledge.
The best local knowledge youcan get is the landowner or the
person that actually saw thedeer, and so they told me where
they saw him.
And because I didn't get tomeet him till nine o'clock at
night it gets dark at six, 15,six, 30.
Um, we were basically therewith flashlights trying to
(37:25):
figure out where can I set up ablind?
And you know, south Texas theyfeed and they they don't have
feeders on this ranch but theydo, uh, use road feeders, you
know, on trucks, and spread itout on roads and stuff like that
and send arrows and that kindof thing.
And so they didn't really feedthis area.
I didn't even know if it evencome to corn or not and if it
(37:46):
even ever really tasted corn.
And so we set up this blind inthe night with the flashlights,
and he said this is one of theplaces we've seen him, but we've
also seen him like a mile southand you know, on down the road
basically.
And so I set up a blind withthe best knowledge I had that I
(38:06):
could see in the dark.
You know, you know this littleopening.
And so I set a blind up.
We went back to the ranch house, had supper, went to bed and
got up the next morning.
I sat in that blind and so Iwas supposed to be there,
because he has a regular jobthis is the grandson of the
owner and he said I can be thereFriday and Saturday, I'll meet
you there or no.
(38:26):
I can be there Saturday andSunday, I'll meet you there
Friday night.
That's why he got there at 9o'clock at night.
So I was going to be thereSaturday and Sunday.
And so Saturday morning I had aspike and like five does and
fawns come in.
So I knew, I knew this wasgoing to be tough.
(38:48):
You know, I from the outset Iknew that I would probably walk
away with no photos of this deerat all, cause I I that happens
to me a majority of the timewhere I don't see the deer that
I'm after and so orphotographing.
And so middle of the day I setup another uh setup that was
more of an afternoon spot.
That was probably 400 yardsaway from this uh, north of this
(39:09):
, and I set that up for anafternoon light and the other
one I had set up for morninglight.
And so I set that one up andcame back and sat in that one
that afternoon, which usually Ilike to let the blind sit for at
least three to five days beforeI sit at them.
But this part of the ranch theyonly lightly hunt, this ranch
(39:30):
they only take like, they onlydo like four hunts, but within
those hunts they'll shoot.
You know they'll have groups oflike five or six hunters but
within those hunts they'll shoot.
You know they'll have groups oflike five or six hunters.
So they only shoot like 20something deer.
But they really concentrate onthat best area which is way
south of where I was it was likeseveral miles from where I was
on this 10,000 acres.
And so anyway, I sat there inthe afternoon in my afternoon
(39:54):
blind.
And so the deer they're kind offine with a new blind being
there, even though the deer wereactually kind of spooked by it
a little bit.
They they were like really kindof watching, but they would
kind of come in.
So anyway, I sat there in theafternoon, nothing came in.
And that evening one of thegrandsons he has this business
(40:16):
that he's doing thermal dronesurveys, deer surveys.
I think it's called Rio VisionSolutions or something like that
, and the name of the ranchactually that I was on is called
the Triple Drop Ranch, which alot of people have followed them
on Instagram and stuff likethat.
(40:36):
And so and Sam the grandsonsaid, hey, tonight, why don't we
go and try to see if we canlocate this deer and see where
he is?
So maybe we can move the blindsto wherever he is located.
So we go up.
I'd never seen like nighttimedrone work with thermal the ones
that are always seen in thepast was just like the daylight
(40:58):
type.
You know that you fly duringthe day, djis and stuff like
that.
Well, he has a special highdollar thermal one that actually
has a spotlight built into itthat will follow the camera and
have a spotlight at night so youcan have the thermal vision of
it, of the animal.
And then you get closer to itand zoom in and then you can
(41:19):
have the um, the spotlightversion, so it's like full color
.
So we he went up he said thisisn't ideal conditions, because
he said with the thermal itworks better if you do it like
at like five o'clock in themorning, because all the
vegetation and everything hascooled off.
And one of the things I foundout, he actually he would sit
there in his uh vehicle in thefront seat running, you know,
(41:40):
with his little uh remotecontrol, and the other landowner
, grandson and I were sitting inthe back seat with a like a 20
inch, 30 inch screen that hehooked up to it and we would
watch as he would move around.
And so the first thing we sawhe was like, hey, there's, I
think that's a deer right there.
And so he like moved in closerto it.
Well, it was glowing white andI said, yeah, I think that looks
(42:04):
like a buck.
Well, it was actually a cactus,because cactus absorb a lot of
heat during the day.
And it was like in the eightieswhen I was there last weekend
and so that absorbs heat.
And I found out that alsomesquite branches and mesquite,
because it's black, absorbs alot of heat also.
And so he said it's better whenyou go like five o'clock in the
(42:25):
morning, because those thingshave cooled off and they're not
glowing white like the deer.
You know, deer, turkeys,coyotes, everything basically
glow white with his setup.
So anyway, he flew for probablyI don't know an hour looking to
see if we could locate that deer.
We located a bunch of deer.
We saw coyotes, we saw a bobcatthat was right behind my blind,
(42:46):
uh, tons of armadillos,jackrabbits, hogs, uh, we saw
pretty much everything, multiplewhite tail deer, but we did not
see the buck we were after.
And so they, they basicallytold me you know, we don't know
what to tell you he may be here.
He said we saw him during therut.
He might have just been throughhere and maybe he lives
(43:09):
somewhere else, you know, a mileor two away.
We have no clue if this is hishome area or not.
And here we are after the rut,post-rut, you know, chances are
very high that you're not goingto see anything.
So anyway.
So the next morning I went backand I sat in my morning spot,
didn't see him again.
This was Sunday morning.
So Saturday blanked out.
(43:30):
Morning and afternoon, sundaymorning blanked out.
So I went back, talked it overwith the guys and I said you
know, what do y'all think?
Should I move the blind?
What should I do?
And they said I think youshould move it like south to the
other spot that we've seen himbefore.
So it was like 1040 in themorning.
We'd just eaten breakfast.
(43:50):
I was driving to one of my twoblinds and I was going to take
my morning blind and move thatlike a mile south and as I came
around the corner I saw deer inthe road right in front of my
afternoon blind and I putbinoculars up through the
windshield and he was 10 yardsfrom my blind eating corn and on
(44:12):
the road in front of my blind,10 yards from it, and he had
several other deer with him.
And so I just I actually shotcell phone video.
I can show you the little 18seconds of video and you, you
know it's it's cell phone, butyou can see the big blobs of
antler.
I mean the big, the big flatpalms of antler as he was
(44:32):
feeding.
You could tell it was him.
So I backed out, I went aroundand got my morning blind out of
there and took, went back to theranch house and said, hey, what
do y'all think?
And they were like, well, thisis the area he's right in front
of your, blind, and so that'sthat's.
(44:53):
You know no reason to move itto the other place.
So I went back there thatafternoon, high hopes, sat there
all afternoon.
Actually, know what sundaymorning I didn't see a deer in
that morning, blind, no, spike,no, does no, nothing that I had
seen, actually fairlyconsistently before that.
(45:13):
Go back to the afternoon, blindon sunday afternoon, high hopes,
he'll come back, no sign of him.
And I think there was just likesome small one and two-year-old
bucks was all I saw and doesand fawns.
So I was kind of bummed becauseI was thinking this is going to
be the afternoon.
But I thought, okay, next daythis is Monday morning I thought
(45:37):
I'm going to sit there becauseI saw him at 1040.
I thought I'm going to sitthere till 11 or 12.
And so got in there, sat thereuntil 12.
He didn't show up at all, noneof the deer.
Actually I had some small bucksand does show up.
But that was it.
(45:57):
So I went back and ate lunchMonday afternoon.
So I went back and ate lunchMonday afternoon.
I sat there from three, 30 tillseven toes pitch black.
He never showed up again.
So all day Monday, no dice.
The last day I could be therewas Tuesday and the ranch owners
(46:21):
, they had already left and theysaid you can just stay here.
You know, here's the combo tothe front gate, here's the
here's.
You know you can use the ranchtruck with a feeder on it and
all that kind of stuff.
And so I was just there bymyself on the ranch.
And so Tuesday came around andI was like, well, this is my
last chance.
Well that the night before I hadtexted you because I had
(46:42):
remembered I think I've got apodcast with George sometime in
February, but I didn't realizewhen it was.
And I looked and I was likethat podcast is supposed to be
tomorrow, on the 4th of February, and so I texted you like at
10.07 at night and said, hey,sorry, I didn't realize when
this was.
I'm on a ranch standing my stay, I'm after a palmated buck and
(47:06):
maybe we can reschedule it forlater.
Well, I didn't hear back fromyou.
I guess till the next morning.
You were probably already inbed or whatever, had your phone
off.
And the next morning, at like745, I get a response from you
and I, you know, basically wewere texting back and forth and
I said you know, I'm here in theblind, I haven't seen anything,
and I explained the situationto you and you're like that was
a really cool reason to, youknow, have to reschedule a
(47:29):
podcast is because you're afterthis buck.
So anyway, I was, like you know, today's, the last day I still
may not see him, so I'm sittingthere.
Then, about nine or nine thirtyin the morning, about two hours
after we had texted, the buckcame in and I got a couple
thousand photos of him, video ofhim.
He was like 20 yards away.
I got all kinds of photos ofhim, awesome photos, and so
(47:53):
anyway, I texted you a photo offthe back of my camera, you know
, really poor quality, you knowcell phone pic of the deer, and
said success, I finally got him.
So so it was kind of cool thatwe were talking back and forth
and I, you know, I was able toget him while we were kind of
talking in the blind, so anyway.
So that was.
That was kind of neat.
And then that afternoon I wentback to the blind and got him in
(48:17):
the afternoon also on Tuesday.
So once he finally figured outyou know there's corn there, I
think he thought maybe there.
You know, cause when they'redriving, uh, with those those
road feeders on the front of thetruck or whatever you know
they'll, there'll be spillageoff the off as they hit bumps
and stuff like that.
Some of the corn will come outof those feeders.
And so when I saw him at 1044on Sunday morning I think he
(48:40):
thought it was just likespillage, because they never
really feed in that area.
They, you know, feed in thebetter part of the ranch, you
know on the South part.
And so I think he had justfound the corn that was on the
road and, you know, just walkedaway.
And so then when he found outthat I had put spots of corn out
in specific places where Iwanted particular backgrounds
(49:01):
and stuff, he finally found thatand he was there.
You know he didn't come in atall on Tuesday, um then, or not
at all on Monday, and then onTuesday I think he found the
corn, maybe in the night orsomething leftover corn from the
day before and he was in thereboth morning and afternoon, so
anyway, so it was really cool.
I got some great photos of himand, um, I haven't even looked
(49:23):
at them on my computer, but youknow I I got a bunch of good
stuff of him, so I'm pretty,pretty excited and pretty
thrilled about what I got.
So I at least got photos of himfor, um, you know, for the book
.
I don't know if I'll ever getthem on the cover of a magazine,
cause he's got these palms thatare, like you know, double the
width of hands, got little shorttines on them, uh, but he's got
(49:46):
seven on his right and six onhis left and, um, you know, his
longest time is probably fiveinches, four inches, you know.
I don't know what it is, it'sjust like it's crazy looking.
He looks like a moose or helooks like a fallow deer.
I mean, it's just bizarre.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
No, it's, it's amazing, it's.
It's one of the most beautifuldeer man.
I've seen it.
I, I, I cannot wait for peopleto be able to see that.
So, um, you know, whetherthat's the book or whether it's
a cover of a magazine orwhatever you decide to do with
it, I can't wait to have that uhbe shared and get people.
You know, obviously you knowthat I'm a big Milanistic fan.
(50:26):
Uh, I haven't haven't taken acouple and had a few off our
property and uh, you know I'mstill looking for that big buck
to have you come out and and uhphotograph out there too.
So we'll be in touch.
Oh, the second I see one.
It's like I got you on speeddial for that man.
I got you in the favorite listready to go.
It's just been a bunch of doughand coming from smaller bucks,
uh, that we've seen.
But you know it's, it's beenamazing.
(50:47):
I mean, that one buck I had isone of those things too.
You know it's one of thelargest that's ever been taken
in North America and it justhappened to be, uh, one that you
know we had.
Kind, I got into the stand thatone day.
But you know, um, and I'llleave a link to that too, cause
that that's a fun little story.
But you know, I know thatyou've you've taken pictures of
(51:09):
so many different you know typesof deer.
Obviously we've got Turkeyseason coming up too, so, uh,
we'll just be staying in touchand you know I'll get you back
on again.
Image to you know, maybe checkout some of the different photos
that you've had there too, likesome behind you there, and just
kind of take a look at someawesome deer pics.
You know I want folks to govisit your website.
(51:31):
Why don't you tell us you knowwhere they can go and maybe some
of the social media handlesthat you have, so that people
can kind of follow along yourjourney?
If you don't, mind.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
All right, yeah, my website is my name, basically
Lance dash.
You know the little hyphenthing, krugercom.
Uh, so that's L A N C E dash, kR U E G?
E R, dot C?
O M.
And then I'm on um uh, Instagram, and that's at Lance krugercom,
or it's just at Lance Kruger,lance underscore Kruger, it's
(51:59):
just at Lance Kruger, lanceunderscore Kruger.
Then on Facebook, you can alsofind me at Lance Kruger
Photography.
On Facebook, that's my businesspage, and then just plain Lance
Kruger for my personal page,but that's more family photos
and stuff like that.
Then I'm on LinkedIn also, andthat's just under Lance Kruger.
You can find me there.
(52:25):
So those are the main ways.
I post photos every day and atleast one photo, and sometimes
up to three photos.
I'm about to start moving intoturkey photos here pretty soon,
but throughout the year, 365days of the year, I post a deer
photo, because that's by far mymost popular and most requested
photos is of whitetails.
So during the spring and summerI'll do a whitetail, I'll do a
turkey and I'll do a fishingphoto and so anyway.
(52:47):
So you'll see three per daythroughout the rest of the
spring and summer and then infall I'll do, you know, three,
maybe four photos per day, andit's mostly all whitetails
during the fall and winter.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
And I'll tell everyone who's listening or
watching these photos areamazing.
They are, you know, top tier,without a doubt.
I love following and just beable to check out what you got
each day, but I can't wait for,you know, your book to come out
to you know everyone.
Make sure you go and orderthose calendars.
It's well worth it.
I just love them.
Man, you are such an amazingphotographer.
(53:22):
I love that you're also sharingyour knowledge that you've had
through all these years and thisexperience with other people
and kind of helping pass thatbaton along to the next
generation who's going to youknow, enjoying this and being
able to share our abundantamazing wildlife that we have in
this country.
Lance, thank you so much forjoining me.
I'll definitely have you backon and look forward to that and
hanging out with you sometimesoon Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
And one thing, the last thing that I would say is,
right now I'm actually having asale on my calendars and if they
want to go to my website, theycan put in 10% off all in
uppercase and they will get 10%off my calendars, which the
calendars are $30.
And they will get, uh, priorityshipping over ground shipping.
So, anyway, and I'm justrunning that through the month
(54:10):
of February and then I'm goingto not be selling them anymore.
But, uh, that's my 2025calendar and it's like one of
the heaviest duty.
Uh, on 130 pound card stockpaper, every, every page is made
of the same stuff.
It's not like they slip a youknow cardboard in in so that the
you know newspaper quality, youknow paper feels like it's
substantial, you know like theydo at the grocery store or
(54:31):
whatever at the bookstore.
So, anyway, it's got 12 photosof really big bucks.
The story behind the photo, ora honey tip, or a photography
tip, or behavioral information.
It gives what camera equipmentI use for each photo, exposure
information, as well as theother thing a lot of people want
to know is how far away wereyou when you shot that photo,
(54:52):
and so it tells the distance oneach photo how far away the deer
was from when I shot it withthat particular lens and it
gives like feeding times, youknow, game and fish activity.
It gives you the days of themonth.
That that's the best.
So there's a lot of informationwith it and so it's been a
super popular thing.
I've been doing it since 2019.
(55:12):
And so, anyway, if somebodywants to get one, even though
it's the month of February, theycan, you know, get a calendar
and use it for the rest of theyear.
A lot of people like to framethem because they're frameable
type prints it for the rest ofthe year.
A lot of people like to framethem because they're frameable
type prints and instead ofbuying a print from me, that's,
you know, like an eight by 10,is, you know, like 80 bucks, I
believe a hundred bucks you canget 12 eight by 10s basically
(55:33):
for 30 bucks.
So, and with the sale it's evencheaper.
So, anyway, just want to leteverybody know that I do have
those calendars and that'savailable on my website on the
shop section.
Just go in there and you caneither do it as a one-time
purchase or as a yearlysubscription that it will just
come to you automatically inyour mailbox each fall.
(55:54):
As soon as I get them printed,I ship all the subscribers out
first and it'll just show up inthe mail and they won't even
have to think about it orremember it.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
I love it.
All right, everyone, go getyour calendars, go check out the
website, sign up for thatmasterclass If you're interested
.
Make sure you're followingLance on the socials and, yeah,
make sure if you're looking toget some awesome prints for your
ranch or for your office.
There are so many amazing onesto choose from.
Seriously, you could spend allday.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Don't let your boss see if you're looking, because
you will spend all day on yourcomputer there.
Lance, thanks again for joiningme and I appreciate all you're
doing.
Sir, You're welcome.
Thanks for having me.
I enjoyed it.
George Cheers, Take care.
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(00:23):
more information and sign up fora free consultation.
You'll be glad you did.
Hey, Lance, how you doing today?
I'm doing good, man.
(00:44):
How are you Fantastic?
Well, listen, man, we got a lotto chat about.
Obviously, we had a podcastscheduled for the other day, and
you had quite a neat experiencethat we needed to go ahead and
postpone this for a couple days,and I definitely want to dive
into that one there too, butI'll leave that as a little
teaser.
What I want to know is a littlebit of background for you.
(01:06):
You can kind of tell ourlisteners you know where you
grew up and then how you gotinvolved with being one of the
premier photographers forwildlife in this entire country.
Man, I'd love to just kind ofhave you, you know, chat about
that and we'll kind of threadthe needle from there.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
All right.
Well, I was actually born inthe Central Texas area in San
Antonio, Was the largest babyever born in the San Antonio
Methodist Hospital at 11 pounds10 ounces.
But I don't know that.
You really wanted to know allthat.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's a fun fact, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's interesting, I think I was the largest baby
born there into the 80ssometimes.
So anyway.
But I grew up in the CentralTexas area Seguin Gonzalez area
and then my dad moved to SouthTexas for a job and he ended up
when I was 16, managing a ranchdown here in South Texas, the La
Coma Red Gate Ranch, owned bythe Benson family, and so I had
(02:04):
always wanted to take picturesof wildlife like I'd seen in the
hunting magazines, becausegrowing up, you know, my dad was
a gunsmith in the SkiingGonzalez area, had a gun shop
Earl's Gun Shop for many years,for like 25 years, and so I had
always gotten the huntingmagazines.
We fished and hunted everyweekend and so growing up,
(02:25):
seeing the photos in the huntingmagazines, I always thought,
man, I would love to shootphotos like what I see in the
hunting magazine, of deer andturkeys and all that kind of
stuff.
And so we would, you know, wewere subscribed to all those
magazines and I would actually,you know, after we're done
reading them, everybody wouldread them cover to cover.
You know, my brother and my dadand I no-transcript, and I
(03:27):
always just thought, you know, Iwould love to shoot photos like
those.
I never thought I would beshooting photos for those same
magazines one day, and so Iwould just kind of like drift
off to sleep and dream aboutthat stuff.
And so my dad bought a camera, aCanon AE-1 camera with a normal
lens and a small telephoto likean 80 to 200 type of zoom kind
(03:51):
of thing which is standard inthe day.
But I was 12 years old, 13years old.
He was afraid I was going tobreak it and that was like a big
purchase for them.
That was something my parentsdidn't have a ton of money, and
so that was like reallysomething that was, you know,
nice and a luxury for them tohave.
And they were afraid thatsomething that was made of glass
(04:12):
and, you know, plastic andstuff like that, that I would,
you know, drop it or break it orwhatever.
So they never let me, you know,really touch it or use it or
anything like that.
So it kind of made me mad, andso I said you know what, one day
I'm going to get my own cameraand I'm going to shoot my own
photos.
So it wasn't until I was 16, uh,back in 1985, that I uh got a
(04:33):
job working at Luby's cafeteriacleaning tables for a summer.
And so I saved up $300 and Iwent to a veterinarian that I
knew uh, that was knew that wasDr Steve Benson.
That was, you know, related toall the Benson family and he was
a wildlife photographer and sowe were taking some of that.
(04:54):
My dad was managing the LaCumbra Red Gate Ranch and you
know it was a, you know, exoticgame ranch and they had, you
know, all these exotic animalsas well as white tails, but it's
also a big quail hunting ranchalso know all these exotic
animals as well as white tails,but it's also a big quail
hunting ranch also.
And so we would have to takethe quail dogs, the English
pointers, into the vet with mydad to get them to get their
checkups and shots and stufflike that.
So he had all these photos,steve Benson had all these
(05:16):
photos on his wall of his vetbusiness, and so while we were
in there having him check outthe dogs, I told him that I was
interested in buying a camera toshoot photos at the ranch.
And what did he recommend?
So he actually, you know,slotted off like a half hour,
like on the next Tuesday, andsaid come in at this time and
you know we'll talk and you knowI'll let you know what to get.
(05:38):
So I went in and I said I've got$300 thinking that was a lot of
money back in 1985, or Ithought it was and he said, okay
, well, let's see what we canget for $300.
So I ended up getting a CanonAE-1 program camera and a Canon
100 to 300, uh 5.6, uh aperturezoom, and I didn't get the
(06:00):
normal lens.
Like most everybody at the time.
The normal lens was a 50millimeter.
You know no-transcript since Iwas a little kid.
So I got this 100 to 300 zoomand basically ordered it in.
(06:21):
The lens was 150 dollars, thecamera was 150 dollars and
compared to cameras nowadaysthat are many times more
expensive than that with digitaland mirrorless and all that
stuff, that was actually really,really cheap.
So but it was perfect for a 16year old kid that you know was
just saving money from cleaningtables.
So I bought that camera, got itin and my next question to Steve
(06:45):
was okay, what kind of film doI put in?
I mean, it was, you know, filmback in those days print film,
slide film, what and what do Iset all these dials on?
I had no clue how to even turnthe camera on or run it.
So he said, okay, we'll come innext Thursday at 3 PM and I'll
show you what to do.
So he told me to buy a roll ofKodachrome 64 film uh, which is
(07:10):
slide film, and uh, which Ibought.
And he said this is what you do, this is your shutter speed,
this is aperture, this is ISO,this is you know kind of what
you do to try to get a goodexposure.
And he told me about the sunny16 roll.
And so I wrote all that stuffdown, took notes on it and went
(07:32):
out to the ranch like thefollowing day and shot that
first roll of 36 exposure filmand got the photos back and I
ran into a photographer atBritain's photo which was a
local camera store down here inSouth Texas, in the Rio Grande
Valley down in McAllen, texas,where I'm from, and that
(07:53):
photographer looked at him.
I told her it was my first rollof film.
She was like the studiophotographer there.
She looked at him and she said,man, you've really got a
natural eye for composition.
I was like, okay, I didn't know, I was just shooting photos of
stuff at the ranch and my bird,dog and stuff like that.
And so she gave me like acouple of sheets to put the
slides in and looked at them.
(08:14):
And so then I bought anotherroll of film and it was one of
those deals where it was alreadyafter the summer, after I was
done working at Luby's, startingto be fall, and so I wasn't
working during the summeranymore because I had to go back
to school.
And so I I'd had, since I was10 years old, a lawn mowing
business, and that's what Iwould typically do is do the
lawn mowing business, you know,like throughout the week.
(08:35):
You know, have my mom drop meoff, kind of thing, and you know
, mow a yard with my brother andand uh, would split the money
from there, and so we didn'tmake a whole lot of money at the
time.
You know, mowing a yard waslike 20 bucks, you know, and you
know 10 of it was for mybrother and 10 of it was for me.
So it took a while to be ableto afford, you know, film and
developing.
So I bought another roll offilm and then I had to basically
(08:59):
shoot a roll of film one weekand then make enough money to
pay for the developing the nextweek.
So it was like every other weekI'd get a roll of film and
develop it.
So, anyway, I started shootingphotos and basically shot photos
until I was 19 years old.
I was in college and was justshooting photos, just trying to
(09:20):
build a file of wildlife photos.
And specifically the thing thatinterested me the most about
that first roll of film, what Iphotographed is, you know, a
white-tailed doe that Iphotographed and the ranch had
all kinds of exotics.
You know, the first photo Iactually shot was of a record
book 25-inch black buck antelopeand that they had told me about
(09:41):
on the ranch, and I actuallysaw him and he was the first
thing that I photographed.
And I photographed bonnie buckswith new babies, zebras,
ostrich.
They even had rhinoceros on theranch.
You know, it was like really,really you know cool stuff that
they had.
But it was that whitetail doeand that fawn that excited me
the most.
And so, you know, after that Ijust kind of loved whitetails
(10:07):
and so just kind of concentratedon those and, you know, even
though everybody was telling meyou know that's the hardest
thing to photograph, they're the, you know, they're the smartest
and the most elusive and allthat kind of stuff, I just
wanted to photograph whitetails,I didn't care.
So, anyway, I started shootingphotos, accumulating a file
primarily whitetail deer.
I didn't care.
So, anyway, I um startedshooting photos, accumulating a
file, uh, primarily whitetaildeer.
(10:28):
I'd photograph exotics when Isaw them.
I'd photograph, you know, birds, songbirds.
I'd photograph turkeys.
I'd, you know, do fishingphotos, cause my dad was an avid
bass fisherman and I grew upbass fishing and thinking I
wanted to be a professional bassfisherman.
One day you know which you knowI decided to be a professional
bass fisherman.
One day you know which you knowI decided to be a wildlife
photographer instead of doingthat and so just kept uh
shooting photos.
And when I was 19, I startedsending a few photos into some
(10:54):
local state magazines and got myfirst photos published in a
magazine called texas huntersdirectory.
You've heard of it.
Okay, so, I, I, you know it wasa small magazine at the time.
Uh, they basically told me wedon't pay for photos but it we
have helped a lot ofphotographers start out.
And so what we will do is wewill give you six copies of the
(11:17):
magazine, If you get anythingpublished, and you can take
those and do what they call tearsheets, which is terror, you
know your published photos outof the magazine and then you
send those to like the nextmagazine and it's like a
credibility kind of thing, so,anyway, so I sent them a bunch
of slides that I'd been, youknow, accumulating over the
years and gotten everything kindof edited down to some of my
(11:39):
best stuff, and they ended upusing one of my photos as a
color shot inside and I thinkfive black and white photos
inside.
And so I thought that was great.
Um, because my one of my idolsat the time that I looked up to
was Jerry Smith, who's fromAlice, Texas, and you know he
was like one of the big fieldand stream photographers at the
(12:00):
time.
And why in the world he wasselling to them is probably
cause he was getting paid for it, and they just told me that,
you know, cause I was a new guythat, you know, never sold
anything.
You know that they didn't pay.
So anyway, he only had, I think, one or two shots and I had six
.
So I was like really proud ofmyself that I had more than
Jerry Smith, you know.
So, anyway, so they sent me themagazines and then I started
(12:21):
sending, you know, the tearsheets into other magazines and
you know, started, you know,trying to sell stuff.
Couldn't really sell stuff.
So when I was in college at theUniversity of Texas Pan American
, which is University of Texas,Rio Grande Valley, now down in
Edinburgh, Texas, I was workingon getting a business marketing
(12:42):
degree, I got to know the editorof the college magazine, which
is called Rio Magazine, whichRio is, you know, river, in
Spanish.
So I had just written aresearch paper about ranching in
South Texas and I had writtenabout like three or four of the
ranches that I was photographingat the time.
And he said, hey, could youtake this and whittle it down to
(13:05):
one ranch and talk aboutranching on that, that ranch,
how they do it?
And, um, he said, then youcould write an article about it.
And, you know, turn yourresearch paper into an article
and you know we'll see aboutyour photos and maybe publish
those with it.
So I submitted that to him andthey published the article and I
(13:26):
think I had like nine photosinside or something like that.
And I was really surprisedbecause he said after the fact,
after he gave me a copy of themagazine, he said here's a check
for $90 for a photo textpackage.
And so he, I got paid 90 bucks.
So that was 19 years old when Iwas in college, and then I
(13:49):
started submitting more and morestuff and then, you know, the
next place I got published uh,statewide was Texas trophy
hunters magazine.
Back in 91, I had the cover ofa Texas trophy hunters and then
they ran an article that I wrotefor them with all the photos
inside, about a big buck that Ihad for them, with all the
photos inside about a big buckthat I had photographed from
three years old to seven and ahalf years old, and I wrote the
(14:10):
article showing, you know, inthe photos, how he had gotten
bigger and smaller, you know,different years depending on his
age, depending on droughtconditions in Texas and stuff
like that.
So that was my next step ofgetting published was with the
state magazines, but I actuallygot paid for it and I learned
you need to negotiate prices upfront and find out what their
(14:32):
photo pay rates are before yousubmit to them.
So then, the next place I gotpublished, I sent them to a
little bit bigger magazine andthat was Bowhunter magazine, and
I had the cover on Bowhunter afew months later, months later.
So anyway, it just kind ofstarted from there and by the
age of 21 I was a part-timeprofessional, put myself through
college working at that camerastore, britain's photo supply,
(14:56):
which I took my first roll offilm into.
I worked there from 19 till Iwas 21 and then quit there and
was going full-time photography,Not just wildlife, I shot
weddings and portraits and allkinds of stuff and just trying
to make my cameras pay forthemselves.
Plus, put myself throughcollege, because my parents
didn't have the money to send meto college but I, so I had to
(15:18):
work a semester and then pay forthe next semester, and so it
took me seven years to get amarketing degree.
That usually takes most peoplefour years.
So I was on the seven year.
Basically the day after Igraduated in December, I had set
up a flight to fly to Montanaon assignment for a magazine to
(15:53):
photograph mule deer uh, for anarticle that the editor had gone
on a hunt out there but heneeded live live mule deer
photos on the property.
So he got everything set up,everything paid for to the ranch
and so, you know, I've beentraveling ever since and so I've
, you know, traveled for thelast, you know, 35 years or
(16:15):
however long it's been 30 yearsall over the United States,
Canada, Alaska, all over theplace.
You know, photographing wildlifein general and I've gotten to
the place where you know,basically at 24 years old, when
I graduated from college, Iconsidered myself full-time
photographer because I wasn'tgoing to college or anything
(16:35):
like that, it was just 100%photography and I've been doing
it, you know, full-time for youknow 30 plus years, you know
part-time, 35 total, andactually this summer will be 40
years since I picked up a cameraback in 1985, the summer of 85.
So the summer of 2025 will be40 years.
So I've been shooting photos along time.
(16:57):
I'm one of the old guys in thebusiness now.
I used to be the youngest guyin the business doing this
professionally back in the 90sand you know been doing it ever
since, and now I'm one of the,you know, the OGs, as they call
it.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Well, you know something that you do too, kind
of like you were looking up atthose particular photographers.
You're like I want to be able todo that, and you know, and you
eclipsed them on that time whenyou had the six published.
But something that you kind ofaspired to is to grow that.
And then now you're also givingback.
You're offering master coursesthrough your website.
(17:32):
There people can sign up to,where you can kind of teach
people how to get in and getclose, the right ways to take
photos and have these, you know,cover quality images that you
can come out to, cause a lot ofthese are really close
encounters.
You know, you're notnecessarily using these crazy,
crazy long lenses I'm sure youdo it sometimes but you're
trying to teach people on themethods to be able to get in
(17:54):
there, get close and have thesereally high quality images.
And I'd love for you to talk alittle bit about your
masterclass and kind of you knowhow you're able to mentor some
other people to kind of get intothis space and kind of keep
this type of lifestyle going.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So if you wouldn't mind, maybe, chatting a little
bit about that and what thoseopportunities look like.
Yeah, the one of the bigmisconceptions or actually two
misconceptions that people have,is that I'm using huge
telephoto lenses, you know, likethousand millimeter lenses,
photograph and deer at 500 yardsaway.
Meter lenses photograph anddeer at 500 yards away, and most
of my photos are 50 yards orless, with most of my cover
shots being 20 to 30 yards.
(18:31):
And so through my classes andthrough the years I've developed
techniques that allow me to bevery close to wildlife.
But I don't have to use big,huge lenses Like that first lens
that I had, that 100 to 300,300 millimeter.
You take that and divide it bywhat was at the time the normal
(18:52):
lens, which is a 50 millimeterlens, which is kind of like what
RICs, kind of our perspective,and so you take 300 divided by
50, that comes out to a 6Xmagnification.
When you think about a 6X pairof binoculars or a 6X rifle
scope, that's not really thatmuch magnification.
It does bring it in six timescloser but it's nothing.
(19:14):
You would try to photograph adeer at even a hundred yards
away, you know, with a 300, youwould really want to have that
deer, you know, like you know,really want to have that deer,
you know, like you know, 20yards away, to get, you know,
some decent photos of him.
And so I don't use big, hugetelephoto lenses.
My lenses that I use for sincethe early nineties was a two
(19:36):
lens setup, which it was a Canon300 millimeter 2.8 lens, point
eight lens and a 500 millimeterfour point five or an F4 lens,
and so basically the 300 was asix X magnification and the 500
was a 10 X.
When you take 500 divided by 50, it comes out to a 10 X
magnification.
That was better for longerdistance type stuff.
(19:59):
So I didn't have to be quite asclose.
But you think about it, a 10xpair of binoculars is kind of a
standard pair of binoculars.
They are not really, and evenlike rifle scopes, you know,
three to nine.
You know, when I was growing upwas kind of the standard scope
magnification.
Uh, now they're going up to thesuper high, like my son is 18
and he's just like really intolong range shooting with his bow
(20:20):
and gun and all this kind ofguns and and so he's saying, dad
, you know, you need to, youknow, change out those old
scopes for, like you know, 16 to24.
And he's talking about allthese huge magnifications.
Well, those lenses aren't evenin the spectrum of the new, you
know, scopes that they usenowadays.
And so I had to figure out, youknow, cause most here, growing
(20:42):
up in Texas and being you know,taught uh, deer hunting here in
Texas.
You know, because most here,growing up in texas and being
you know, taught uh deer huntinghere in texas.
You know the typical setup isyou have a feeder set up and you
have a blind that's 100 yardsaway, and usually it's an
elevated blind that's above them, uh, which I don't understand
most of the time because it's onflat ground a lot of times, you
know.
So what's the reason for havingan elevated blind?
(21:02):
You know, other than you knowit makes you feel like you're
hunting more or something.
But anyway, um, that's thetypical setup.
Well, 100 yards with a 300millimeter lens.
When I started out with it wasa little brown dot in the photo,
and so I figured out okay, I'vegot to get closer.
And so I started.
I I started making my ownblinds, because this was back in
(21:23):
the 80s and early 90s, whenthere was no pop-up blinds.
I had to build my own blinds outof plywood or brush blinds or
just camoing out and stuff likethat.
But I also made a.
I had a local upholstery storemake a cover for a Kodak I can't
(21:45):
remember the brand Kodakprojector stand and basically
it's four legs and then it hadlike a table on top of it and
that's where you put yourprojector and it had like legs
that, you know, went in and out.
And so I had this localupholstery shop make a cover
with like a sock going out whereI could put my lens out of it,
and I made my own pop-up blindwhere I could put my lens out of
(22:06):
it, and I made my own pop-upblind.
So I started placing thoseblinds, those wood blinds that I
would make, or brush blinds orthat little pop-up blind, you
know, like 30 yards away insteadof 100 yards away to fill up
the frame a little closer.
And so I was doing that, youknow, over 35 years ago.
And so I've developed over theyears, having traveled all over
(22:28):
the United States photographingwhitetails in just about every
region of the United States andCanada and every habitat you can
imagine, trying to take what Ilearned here in Texas and apply
that to what I learned, you know, around the United States, you
know, having to tweak things andchange things based on the
situation and every property'sdifferent.
(22:50):
And so, basically, I've learnedand kind of perfected the
techniques of how to get very,very close to whitetail deer and
especially heavily huntedwhitetail deer.
And so and those are the onesthat taught me the most was, you
know, deer that are heavily,heavily hunted, and so you know
(23:11):
they're like heavily managed,you know, because to have a
property that's heavily, youknow, that's that grows big deer
, you've got to shoot a lot ofdeer, you know call box does
especially, and so those areyour worst ones to try to fool,
because those are, you know,they're trying to raise fawns,
they're thinking thatsomething's wanting to eat them
ever since the day they wereborn and they're also the ones
(23:33):
that are that are harvested themost.
And so these deer, you know,get very, very spooky on a
heavily managed place, eventhough they let the bucks grow
to maturity and all that stuff.
And, you know, let the deer,you know, show their full antler
potential and full bodypotential, getting, you know, to
full size at five, six, sevenyears old.
But those bucks get very, verysmart over those years,
(23:55):
especially when they see so manyof their buddies get shot right
next to them, you know.
So they wise up, you know, withall that negative human
interaction.
So I deal with a lot of placeslike that because the magazines
want photos of big, big whitetails.
They like big rack deer and so,you know, not unusually big,
but they just want somethingthat somebody can kind of dream
about.
It's kind of like Playboymagazine.
(24:16):
You don't want to see, you know, like, you know, the standard
girl.
You want to see somebody that'slike a little cut above the
rest, and so they want to showphotos of deer on the covers of
magazines that are a little bitcut above the rest, you know, a
little bit bigger, but notsomething that's, you know,
ungodly big, like a lot of thebreeder bucks nowadays and stuff
like that.
Um, so anyway, so I'vedeveloped these techniques and I
(24:38):
started three years ago doingthese master classes and you
know I've been doing them beforelike on a one-on-one basis and
I still do that to this day.
(25:00):
Ranch here in south texas thathas, you know, a native
whitetail herd that you know ison fourth 4200 acres that just,
you know, grows some really,really big deer.
They're very, you know, uh, theowner of the property is very
management minded and heunderstands whitetails about as
well as anybody I've met in thebusiness.
So, anyway, so I teach peoplethat you don't have to have
these monstrous lenses.
I teach them how to get closeto the wildlife or get the
(25:22):
wildlife close to them so thatthey can fill the frames, their
photos, and fill the frames ofyou know photos like you see up
here, that you know it's not alittle tiny brown dot, it's an
impactful image of a whitetaildeer and you can see every
detail, down to the eyelashesand everything else.
But it's because you got thatdeer close to you.
(25:42):
You're using lenses that are alot less expensive.
Uh, you're using lenses thatyou know don't have a lot of
magnification so that they arevery, very sharp, because
they're not these big monstrouslenses that have all these you
know design flaws in them andstuff like that, and and, plus,
it saves you a lot of money.
So, anyway, so the class reallypays for itself and the
(26:03):
equipment that you don't have tobuy.
Uh, that's so super,astronomically expensive.
I mean you can buy those super,you know expensive lenses.
But what?
What people don't realize theysee my lenses.
You know I got the big whitelenses like you see on the
sidelines at football games, nflgames and college games, but
they're not that muchmagnification.
They're actually big aroundbecause they're gathering light.
(26:26):
It's not so much themagnification.
Like right now, I changed fromthat earlier system that I told
you the 302.8 and the 500 F4system, two lens system to where
I'm using now because I'mstarting to shoot more video for
social media Cause that's, youknow, kind of the way things are
going, and so I've moved down100 millimeters for each of
(26:47):
those two main lenses that I useas a two lens setup.
So instead of a 302 point,excuse me a 302.8, I'm now using
a 200 millimeter F2.
So it's got more lightgathering capability, capability
, but it's a little bit wider.
Uh, instead of the 500 f4, I'mshooting a 400 millimeter 2.8
lens.
So a 400 is an 8x magnification.
(27:10):
I went from 10x down to 8x.
I went from a 300, which was 6x, down to a 200 millimeter,
which is 4x magnification.
You know people use 4x scopesfor, like hunting, cape, buffalo
, like in close range type stuff.
I mean that it's like a closerange, you know, 50 yards or
(27:30):
less kind of situation.
With the same magnification andrifle scopes, nobody would use
a 4x pair of binoculars.
That that's hardly anymagnification whatsoever.
So anyway, so I teach them howto get close, how to get the
wildlife close to them, how tobasically be undetected, how to
overcome the eyes, ears and noseof the whitetail deer.
I teach them how to defeat whatI call the danger detection
(27:53):
system.
You know, whitetail deer hastheir head up and that danger
detection system is constantlyscanning with their ears, their
eyes and their nose All that isdetected with that head.
That's on a periscope.
So I teach them how to overcomethose three things which, as
you know, with a white-taileddeer they've got some of the
best eyes, the ears and nose inthe animal kingdom.
(28:15):
And so, anyway, so that's whatI teach them.
I teach them about how to setthings up to be able to get
cover quality type photos.
So it's a three-day class overfour days.
It's a half day where they showup midday and they're in the
field that first afternoon, andthen they have two full days
(28:37):
after that and then they have alast half a day of morning
before they leave, you know,after breakfast, the, the on the
fourth day.
So it's three full days.
I limit the class to six peopleso that each person can have
one morning or afternoon sit inthe blind with me and I'm just
there with them, one-on-one,answering any questions.
(28:58):
You know, as we're whispering,you know we're not doing that
while the bucks are there orwhatever, but basically I, you
know, tell them okay, you knowyou need to change this, you
need to do that, and I work withthem on their setup and how
they're, you know, set up toshoot photos and I'm just there
to advise them and or just shootthe bull if they want, and so,
anyway, so that's, that's one ofthe cool things that we do.
(29:21):
And then we teach the class,basically middle of the day and,
um, you know, do that betweensits, and we even do it after in
the evening, because I have somuch information to share with
them and everybody that hastaken it have just been rabid
supporters of the classes andjust, I mean one guy wrote an
article about it Is it worthtaking Lance Kruger's, you know,
(29:43):
uh, white tail dream bucks upclose masterclass, and it's just
, it's been a real huge success.
So, anyway, so I'm uh going tobe offering those again this
fall, uh, probably in Novembersometime, and uh, you know, if
anybody's interested, you knowthey can contact me.
I don't have, like, the dateset up yet, so there's no
masterclass.
You know button, I've alreadytaken that off because we've
(30:04):
already done the ones for 2024.
But if anybody wants to dosomething like in Velvet, wants
to come down to some of myranches or something, or you
know, do you know somethingspecific, you know I can book
them on a daily basis.
You know day rate type basisand you know teach them
one-on-one so they don't have to, you know, have five other
people that are trying to askquestions and stuff like that.
(30:26):
So anyway, so I offer that onan individual basis but also as
a group setting as well.
You know where all the food andlodging and all that kind of
stuff is provided.
So it's a great time and youknow deer camp feel and you know
everybody sitting around in theevening around the dinner table
looking at photos, whateverybody got during the day,
and it's just, you know it'sjust an electric charged
(30:48):
situation because everybody'ssupporting each other and
high-fiving over.
You know success with animalsthat you know we didn't think we
would see.
And you know there's othertimes that you know we don't see
the deer that we're after at aspecific spot the whole time.
We're there the whole week, youknow, but other times, you know
, people get photos of the samedeer, so it's a lot of fun and
you know, great learningexperience and you know Las
(31:10):
Reyes, this is just anincredible place and you know
good food and good fellowshipand it's just a fun time.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Man, I mean, that sounds like checking all the
boxes and I love that you knowpeople who want to kind of get
into.
This is a really great fasttrack way to get in there and
learn how to do this with one ofthe best I mean you have been I
think probably one of the mostI know you're the most you know
covered photo photographer asfar as on field and stream.
I know that you've been in somany different books and
magazines.
(31:42):
I mean one of the mostpublished, uh, white tail, deer
and wild Turkey photographers inthe world.
Uh, and I know that there's somany things that you've put out
there.
Uh, I love that you also have acalendar each year that you put
out.
Um and I and again, well, I'llhave all the show notes, uh,
below air in the show notes, allthe links, but, uh, you know,
to your website there, uh, to goahead and pick that up and it
(32:02):
looks amazing.
You know, I want to kind ofbring it back around to.
Well, you know what I teased inthe very beginning and you were
talking about sometimes you'reout there for multiple days in a
row.
You got a target buck in yourIf you want to talk about the
book that you recently had anencounter with, which was the
reason why we had to kind ofpause this for a couple days,
(32:24):
because it's just phenomenal.
I know that that's somethingthat people will be able to see
in the future.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We're not going to show it today, but if you
wouldn't go ahead and talk aboutwhat made that book in
particular so special, Well, Ihad seen some video back in
mid-December of a white buckthat I had only seen one of this
type of buck before and what itis is he's a palmated buck and
(32:53):
basically looks like he's partfallow deer or part moose.
You know he's just got thesebig paddles, you know big palms
on his antlers instead of mainbeams that are kind of rounded
and that kind of thing.
So I contacted, I rememberedthe deer from December but I was
(33:14):
photographing on so manyproperties all over the state.
Basically the whole month ofDecember and January I was, I
was gone photographing in ablind.
The only time I was basicallyback home, uh, was for Christmas
and new years and stuff likethat, and so and and plus my son
was bow hunting at several ofthese properties, you know,
throughout the year trying toget his first buck with a bow,
and so that was like thatactually has been like a three
(33:36):
year, you know timeframe of himtrying to get one and you know
shooting at a couple and they,you know his bow was too loud
and they ducked you know duckedthe string or whatever you call
it, and anyway, jumped thestring, that's the word and so
you know, went right over theirback and all that kind of stuff.
So, anyway, so he was with mebut I had found out about this
(33:56):
buck back in December,mid-december, and I wanted to
contact the landowner because Ihad met him previously but I'd
never photographed there.
And so I remember that buck andI was just thinking, man, I
would love to have that deer inmy book and I'm working on a
book project that I'm going tobe photographing for for the
next couple of years that I hopeto produced and published here
(34:19):
in the next few years.
But basically I thought I wouldlove to have that deer in my
book because he's such a rarity.
The last time I had seen apalmated deer was back in like
1995.
When I was like 25, 26 yearsold, I was guiding hunters in
(34:43):
Michigan and one of the one ofthe hunters on the ranch, my
hunter, shot a palmated deer onthe ranch and but I never got to
photograph it because I didn'teven know the deer even existed.
He, he showed up and I was likeyou know, shoot that buck.
I mean, he's a, he's a reallyunusual buck and he shot it and
the only photos I got of him waswhen the deer was dead.
Never got any photos of himalive because I didn't even know
he even existed.
And so here it is, you know, 30years later, and I had never
(35:08):
seen a palmated deer.
Even though I've been to someof the top properties in North
America, seen thousands andthousands of mature whitetails,
I had not seen another palmateddeer.
Well, when I found saw the videoof this deer, I contacted the
landowner like late Januarybecause I was just gone and had
(35:28):
everything scheduled with allkinds of landowners all over
Texas and and going to the hillcountry and central Texas and
all over South Texas.
And so I said hey, is there anyway I could try to photograph
this deer?
I'd really like to get him inthis upcoming book that I'm
working on.
And we set things up for me toarrive like the 31st of January,
on Friday night, which was justthis last week, and so I
(35:51):
arrived Friday night.
He said here's the problemWe've got 10,000 acres, we have
no feeders on the ranch.
Problem We've got 10,000 acres,we have no feeders on the ranch
, we have no blinds on the ranchand we have no game cameras.
We saw this deer back inDecember.
We saw him a few times andthere was like a one mile area
that they had seen him and theysaid but we have no idea where
(36:15):
he is, we don't reallyconcentrate on that part of the
ranch because it's notconsidered like one of the
better parts of the ranch.
They've got like at the farsouth end of the ranch it's more
bottom land habitat, and hesaid that's where our bigger
deer are.
We, we go down to that end ofthe ranch most of the time and
so I said well, that's the deerI want to photograph.
I don't want to just photographjust any other deer, I'm going
(36:37):
to try to photograph him andthat's one of the things that
I've done over the years.
That I do a lot of is I willlike trophy hunt, which to me,
trophy hunting is when you goafter a specific deer or a
specific class or size of deer.
Um, and I will go.
I will fine tune that down towhere I'm going after a buck,
(37:02):
will fine tune that down towhere I'm going after a buck,
and so that has taught me a lotof how to figure out whitetails
over the last 30 something years.
And so we set up based on localknowledge.
The best local knowledge youcan get is the landowner or the
person that actually saw thedeer, and so they told me where
they saw him.
And because I didn't get tomeet him till nine o'clock at
night it gets dark at six, 15,six, 30.
Um, we were basically therewith flashlights trying to
(37:25):
figure out where can I set up ablind?
And you know, south Texas theyfeed and they they don't have
feeders on this ranch but theydo, uh, use road feeders, you
know, on trucks, and spread itout on roads and stuff like that
and send arrows and that kindof thing.
And so they didn't really feedthis area.
I didn't even know if it evencome to corn or not and if it
(37:46):
even ever really tasted corn.
And so we set up this blind inthe night with the flashlights,
and he said this is one of theplaces we've seen him, but we've
also seen him like a mile southand you know, on down the road
basically.
And so I set up a blind withthe best knowledge I had that I
(38:06):
could see in the dark.
You know, you know this littleopening.
And so I set a blind up.
We went back to the ranch house, had supper, went to bed and
got up the next morning.
I sat in that blind and so Iwas supposed to be there,
because he has a regular jobthis is the grandson of the
owner and he said I can be thereFriday and Saturday, I'll meet
you there or no.
(38:26):
I can be there Saturday andSunday, I'll meet you there
Friday night.
That's why he got there at 9o'clock at night.
So I was going to be thereSaturday and Sunday.
And so Saturday morning I had aspike and like five does and
fawns come in.
So I knew, I knew this wasgoing to be tough.
(38:48):
You know, I from the outset Iknew that I would probably walk
away with no photos of this deerat all, cause I I that happens
to me a majority of the timewhere I don't see the deer that
I'm after and so orphotographing.
And so middle of the day I setup another uh setup that was
more of an afternoon spot.
That was probably 400 yardsaway from this uh, north of this
(39:09):
, and I set that up for anafternoon light and the other
one I had set up for morninglight.
And so I set that one up andcame back and sat in that one
that afternoon, which usually Ilike to let the blind sit for at
least three to five days beforeI sit at them.
But this part of the ranch theyonly lightly hunt, this ranch
(39:30):
they only take like, they onlydo like four hunts, but within
those hunts they'll shoot.
You know they'll have groups oflike five or six hunters but
within those hunts they'll shoot.
You know they'll have groups oflike five or six hunters.
So they only shoot like 20something deer.
But they really concentrate onthat best area which is way
south of where I was it was likeseveral miles from where I was
on this 10,000 acres.
And so anyway, I sat there inthe afternoon in my afternoon
(39:54):
blind.
And so the deer they're kind offine with a new blind being
there, even though the deer wereactually kind of spooked by it
a little bit.
They they were like really kindof watching, but they would
kind of come in.
So anyway, I sat there in theafternoon, nothing came in.
And that evening one of thegrandsons he has this business
(40:16):
that he's doing thermal dronesurveys, deer surveys.
I think it's called Rio VisionSolutions or something like that
, and the name of the ranchactually that I was on is called
the Triple Drop Ranch, which alot of people have followed them
on Instagram and stuff likethat.
(40:36):
And so and Sam the grandsonsaid, hey, tonight, why don't we
go and try to see if we canlocate this deer and see where
he is?
So maybe we can move the blindsto wherever he is located.
So we go up.
I'd never seen like nighttimedrone work with thermal the ones
that are always seen in thepast was just like the daylight
(40:58):
type.
You know that you fly duringthe day, djis and stuff like
that.
Well, he has a special highdollar thermal one that actually
has a spotlight built into itthat will follow the camera and
have a spotlight at night so youcan have the thermal vision of
it, of the animal.
And then you get closer to itand zoom in and then you can
(41:19):
have the um, the spotlightversion, so it's like full color
.
So we he went up he said thisisn't ideal conditions, because
he said with the thermal itworks better if you do it like
at like five o'clock in themorning, because all the
vegetation and everything hascooled off.
And one of the things I foundout, he actually he would sit
there in his uh vehicle in thefront seat running, you know,
(41:40):
with his little uh remotecontrol, and the other landowner
, grandson and I were sitting inthe back seat with a like a 20
inch, 30 inch screen that hehooked up to it and we would
watch as he would move around.
And so the first thing we sawhe was like, hey, there's, I
think that's a deer right there.
And so he like moved in closerto it.
Well, it was glowing white andI said, yeah, I think that looks
(42:04):
like a buck.
Well, it was actually a cactus,because cactus absorb a lot of
heat during the day.
And it was like in the eightieswhen I was there last weekend
and so that absorbs heat.
And I found out that alsomesquite branches and mesquite,
because it's black, absorbs alot of heat also.
And so he said it's better whenyou go like five o'clock in the
(42:25):
morning, because those thingshave cooled off and they're not
glowing white like the deer.
You know, deer, turkeys,coyotes, everything basically
glow white with his setup.
So anyway, he flew for probablyI don't know an hour looking to
see if we could locate that deer.
We located a bunch of deer.
We saw coyotes, we saw a bobcatthat was right behind my blind,
(42:46):
uh, tons of armadillos,jackrabbits, hogs, uh, we saw
pretty much everything, multiplewhite tail deer, but we did not
see the buck we were after.
And so they, they basicallytold me you know, we don't know
what to tell you he may be here.
He said we saw him during therut.
He might have just been throughhere and maybe he lives
(43:09):
somewhere else, you know, a mileor two away.
We have no clue if this is hishome area or not.
And here we are after the rut,post-rut, you know, chances are
very high that you're not goingto see anything.
So anyway.
So the next morning I went backand I sat in my morning spot,
didn't see him again.
This was Sunday morning.
So Saturday blanked out.
(43:30):
Morning and afternoon, sundaymorning blanked out.
So I went back, talked it overwith the guys and I said you
know, what do y'all think?
Should I move the blind?
What should I do?
And they said I think youshould move it like south to the
other spot that we've seen himbefore.
So it was like 1040 in themorning.
We'd just eaten breakfast.
(43:50):
I was driving to one of my twoblinds and I was going to take
my morning blind and move thatlike a mile south and as I came
around the corner I saw deer inthe road right in front of my
afternoon blind and I putbinoculars up through the
windshield and he was 10 yardsfrom my blind eating corn and on
(44:12):
the road in front of my blind,10 yards from it, and he had
several other deer with him.
And so I just I actually shotcell phone video.
I can show you the little 18seconds of video and you, you
know it's it's cell phone, butyou can see the big blobs of
antler.
I mean the big, the big flatpalms of antler as he was
(44:32):
feeding.
You could tell it was him.
So I backed out, I went aroundand got my morning blind out of
there and took, went back to theranch house and said, hey, what
do y'all think?
And they were like, well, thisis the area he's right in front
of your, blind, and so that'sthat's.
(44:53):
You know no reason to move itto the other place.
So I went back there thatafternoon, high hopes, sat there
all afternoon.
Actually, know what sundaymorning I didn't see a deer in
that morning, blind, no, spike,no, does no, nothing that I had
seen, actually fairlyconsistently before that.
(45:13):
Go back to the afternoon, blindon sunday afternoon, high hopes,
he'll come back, no sign of him.
And I think there was just likesome small one and two-year-old
bucks was all I saw and doesand fawns.
So I was kind of bummed becauseI was thinking this is going to
be the afternoon.
But I thought, okay, next daythis is Monday morning I thought
(45:37):
I'm going to sit there becauseI saw him at 1040.
I thought I'm going to sitthere till 11 or 12.
And so got in there, sat thereuntil 12.
He didn't show up at all, noneof the deer.
Actually I had some small bucksand does show up.
But that was it.
(45:57):
So I went back and ate lunchMonday afternoon.
So I went back and ate lunchMonday afternoon.
I sat there from three, 30 tillseven toes pitch black.
He never showed up again.
So all day Monday, no dice.
The last day I could be therewas Tuesday and the ranch owners
(46:21):
, they had already left and theysaid you can just stay here.
You know, here's the combo tothe front gate, here's the
here's.
You know you can use the ranchtruck with a feeder on it and
all that kind of stuff.
And so I was just there bymyself on the ranch.
And so Tuesday came around andI was like, well, this is my
last chance.
Well that the night before I hadtexted you because I had
(46:42):
remembered I think I've got apodcast with George sometime in
February, but I didn't realizewhen it was.
And I looked and I was likethat podcast is supposed to be
tomorrow, on the 4th of February, and so I texted you like at
10.07 at night and said, hey,sorry, I didn't realize when
this was.
I'm on a ranch standing my stay, I'm after a palmated buck and
(47:06):
maybe we can reschedule it forlater.
Well, I didn't hear back fromyou.
I guess till the next morning.
You were probably already inbed or whatever, had your phone
off.
And the next morning, at like745, I get a response from you
and I, you know, basically wewere texting back and forth and
I said you know, I'm here in theblind, I haven't seen anything,
and I explained the situationto you and you're like that was
a really cool reason to, youknow, have to reschedule a
(47:29):
podcast is because you're afterthis buck.
So anyway, I was, like you know, today's, the last day I still
may not see him, so I'm sittingthere.
Then, about nine or nine thirtyin the morning, about two hours
after we had texted, the buckcame in and I got a couple
thousand photos of him, video ofhim.
He was like 20 yards away.
I got all kinds of photos ofhim, awesome photos, and so
(47:53):
anyway, I texted you a photo offthe back of my camera, you know
, really poor quality, you knowcell phone pic of the deer, and
said success, I finally got him.
So so it was kind of cool thatwe were talking back and forth
and I, you know, I was able toget him while we were kind of
talking in the blind, so anyway.
So that was.
That was kind of neat.
And then that afternoon I wentback to the blind and got him in
(48:17):
the afternoon also on Tuesday.
So once he finally figured outyou know there's corn there, I
think he thought maybe there.
You know, cause when they'redriving, uh, with those those
road feeders on the front of thetruck or whatever you know
they'll, there'll be spillageoff the off as they hit bumps
and stuff like that.
Some of the corn will come outof those feeders.
And so when I saw him at 1044on Sunday morning I think he
(48:40):
thought it was just likespillage, because they never
really feed in that area.
They, you know, feed in thebetter part of the ranch, you
know on the South part.
And so I think he had justfound the corn that was on the
road and, you know, just walkedaway.
And so then when he found outthat I had put spots of corn out
in specific places where Iwanted particular backgrounds
(49:01):
and stuff, he finally found thatand he was there.
You know he didn't come in atall on Tuesday, um then, or not
at all on Monday, and then onTuesday I think he found the
corn, maybe in the night orsomething leftover corn from the
day before and he was in thereboth morning and afternoon, so
anyway, so it was really cool.
I got some great photos of himand, um, I haven't even looked
(49:23):
at them on my computer, but youknow I I got a bunch of good
stuff of him, so I'm pretty,pretty excited and pretty
thrilled about what I got.
So I at least got photos of himfor, um, you know, for the book
.
I don't know if I'll ever getthem on the cover of a magazine,
cause he's got these palms thatare, like you know, double the
width of hands, got little shorttines on them, uh, but he's got
(49:46):
seven on his right and six onhis left and, um, you know, his
longest time is probably fiveinches, four inches, you know.
I don't know what it is, it'sjust like it's crazy looking.
He looks like a moose or helooks like a fallow deer.
I mean, it's just bizarre.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
No, it's, it's amazing, it's.
It's one of the most beautifuldeer man.
I've seen it.
I, I, I cannot wait for peopleto be able to see that.
So, um, you know, whetherthat's the book or whether it's
a cover of a magazine orwhatever you decide to do with
it, I can't wait to have that uhbe shared and get people.
You know, obviously you knowthat I'm a big Milanistic fan.
(50:26):
Uh, I haven't haven't taken acouple and had a few off our
property and uh, you know I'mstill looking for that big buck
to have you come out and and uhphotograph out there too.
So we'll be in touch.
Oh, the second I see one.
It's like I got you on speeddial for that man.
I got you in the favorite listready to go.
It's just been a bunch of doughand coming from smaller bucks,
uh, that we've seen.
But you know it's, it's beenamazing.
(50:47):
I mean, that one buck I had isone of those things too.
You know it's one of thelargest that's ever been taken
in North America and it justhappened to be, uh, one that you
know we had.
Kind, I got into the stand thatone day.
But you know, um, and I'llleave a link to that too, cause
that that's a fun little story.
But you know, I know thatyou've you've taken pictures of
(51:09):
so many different you know typesof deer.
Obviously we've got Turkeyseason coming up too, so, uh,
we'll just be staying in touchand you know I'll get you back
on again.
Image to you know, maybe checkout some of the different photos
that you've had there too, likesome behind you there, and just
kind of take a look at someawesome deer pics.
You know I want folks to govisit your website.
(51:31):
Why don't you tell us you knowwhere they can go and maybe some
of the social media handlesthat you have, so that people
can kind of follow along yourjourney?
If you don't, mind.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
All right, yeah, my website is my name, basically
Lance dash.
You know the little hyphenthing, krugercom.
Uh, so that's L A N C E dash, kR U E G?
E R, dot C?
O M.
And then I'm on um uh, Instagram, and that's at Lance krugercom,
or it's just at Lance Kruger,lance underscore Kruger, it's
(51:59):
just at Lance Kruger, lanceunderscore Kruger.
Then on Facebook, you can alsofind me at Lance Kruger
Photography.
On Facebook, that's my businesspage, and then just plain Lance
Kruger for my personal page,but that's more family photos
and stuff like that.
Then I'm on LinkedIn also, andthat's just under Lance Kruger.
You can find me there.
(52:25):
So those are the main ways.
I post photos every day and atleast one photo, and sometimes
up to three photos.
I'm about to start moving intoturkey photos here pretty soon,
but throughout the year, 365days of the year, I post a deer
photo, because that's by far mymost popular and most requested
photos is of whitetails.
So during the spring and summerI'll do a whitetail, I'll do a
turkey and I'll do a fishingphoto and so anyway.
(52:47):
So you'll see three per daythroughout the rest of the
spring and summer and then infall I'll do, you know, three,
maybe four photos per day, andit's mostly all whitetails
during the fall and winter.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
And I'll tell everyone who's listening or
watching these photos areamazing.
They are, you know, top tier,without a doubt.
I love following and just beable to check out what you got
each day, but I can't wait for,you know, your book to come out
to you know everyone.
Make sure you go and orderthose calendars.
It's well worth it.
I just love them.
Man, you are such an amazingphotographer.
(53:22):
I love that you're also sharingyour knowledge that you've had
through all these years and thisexperience with other people
and kind of helping pass thatbaton along to the next
generation who's going to youknow, enjoying this and being
able to share our abundantamazing wildlife that we have in
this country.
Lance, thank you so much forjoining me.
I'll definitely have you backon and look forward to that and
hanging out with you sometimesoon Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
And one thing, the last thing that I would say is,
right now I'm actually having asale on my calendars and if they
want to go to my website, theycan put in 10% off all in
uppercase and they will get 10%off my calendars, which the
calendars are $30.
And they will get, uh, priorityshipping over ground shipping.
So, anyway, and I'm justrunning that through the month
(54:10):
of February and then I'm goingto not be selling them anymore.
But, uh, that's my 2025calendar and it's like one of
the heaviest duty.
Uh, on 130 pound card stockpaper, every, every page is made
of the same stuff.
It's not like they slip a youknow cardboard in in so that the
you know newspaper quality, youknow paper feels like it's
substantial, you know like theydo at the grocery store or
(54:31):
whatever at the bookstore.
So, anyway, it's got 12 photosof really big bucks.
The story behind the photo, ora honey tip, or a photography
tip, or behavioral information.
It gives what camera equipmentI use for each photo, exposure
information, as well as theother thing a lot of people want
to know is how far away wereyou when you shot that photo,
(54:52):
and so it tells the distance oneach photo how far away the deer
was from when I shot it withthat particular lens and it
gives like feeding times, youknow, game and fish activity.
It gives you the days of themonth.
That that's the best.
So there's a lot of informationwith it and so it's been a
super popular thing.
I've been doing it since 2019.
(55:12):
And so, anyway, if somebodywants to get one, even though
it's the month of February, theycan, you know, get a calendar
and use it for the rest of theyear.
A lot of people like to framethem because they're frameable
type prints it for the rest ofthe year.
A lot of people like to framethem because they're frameable
type prints and instead ofbuying a print from me, that's,
you know, like an eight by 10,is, you know, like 80 bucks, I
believe a hundred bucks you canget 12 eight by 10s basically
(55:33):
for 30 bucks.
So, and with the sale it's evencheaper.
So, anyway, just want to leteverybody know that I do have
those calendars and that'savailable on my website on the
shop section.
Just go in there and you caneither do it as a one-time
purchase or as a yearlysubscription that it will just
come to you automatically inyour mailbox each fall.
(55:54):
As soon as I get them printed,I ship all the subscribers out
first and it'll just show up inthe mail and they won't even
have to think about it orremember it.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
I love it.
All right, everyone, go getyour calendars, go check out the
website, sign up for thatmasterclass If you're interested
.
Make sure you're followingLance on the socials and, yeah,
make sure if you're looking toget some awesome prints for your
ranch or for your office.
There are so many amazing onesto choose from.
Seriously, you could spend allday.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Don't let your boss see if you're looking, because
you will spend all day on yourcomputer there.
Lance, thanks again for joiningme and I appreciate all you're
doing.
Sir, You're welcome.
Thanks for having me.
I enjoyed it.
George Cheers, Take care.
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