Stalking Shadows: A Photographic Exploration of Nighttime Hunting

Hello and Welcome back to my blog!

Long gone are the days when video game graphics were just big blobs of pixels that you could see from a mile away. They have come a long way in terms of graphics. Some games look very realistic and whenever I share some pictures in this community I always get comments like we thought it was a real place not from a game. Let me show you more such realistic-looking pictures but this time we will test them in extremely low light conditions and at night which is the theme for this week's challenge.

One of the most beautiful places in theHunter: Call of the Wild is the bright Crimson plains of Yukon Valley. I have seen some beautiful places on various maps/reserves but this place feels something special, right out of some fairy tale.

Look at how the crimson grass just sets the tone for the whole place. The contrast between the blue sky and the red grass makes it so appealing to me!

But didn't I say the theme is Night Photography? So, why I am showing a clear day sky? Sorry, I couldn't resist but share this just so you know how it differs from the night sky.

At night, this place just becomes more magical, when you shine your flashlight on the trees, they glow with interesting colours, making the place feel more magical.

In the clear night sky, a full moon was visible which lit up the bright grass and tree leaves, giving me sufficient light to capture this next shot.

I was not too focused on finding animals, I loved the quiet walk with my companion, Sheru, who helped me more as a model for my photographs than tracking and picking up scents of animals...lol.

I told him to pretend like he was a wolf and howl at the full moon I carefully adjusted him in the frame until he was perfectly aligned but he had his own plans. He was looking all confused and thinking what I was up to. He has other important things to do like itch! What a bastard!

I had enough of him and we moved on to better grounds. The Crimson plains were way too silent for any animals. We found an old railroad, it looked creepy in the dark. Some clouds covered the moon for a few seconds and that was perfect for a creepy picture of the railway line.

Hunting in the dark is always difficult, you need special equipment such as night vision Binoculars and scopes. Without them, you won't be able to see anything. You'll still hear a lot of things and, surprisingly, so many animals become active at night, most of them are predators looking for their prey.

I heard a Caribou running away just next to a river. It wasn't a tough shot but I took my chances and the bullet hit too! This was my first kill for tonight. I was proud of my shot on a running Caribou.

It ran towards the railway bridge but collapsed on the way which gave me a great shot of my kill lying basking in the moonlight. Even Sheru was pretty excited after this kill. I think he likes to hunt in the dark.

The moon was playing hide and seek while I looked for my next target. I went to higher grounds to look for more clues.

I went back down close to the river and decided to follow the river. Some animals come to quench their thirst at night and they attract the biggest predators on this map, the Grizzly Bears!!

There you go! I found some Grizzlies who had come up to the river in search of water and food. I didn't waste much time and aimed at the biggest of them.

I hunted a 500 kg male Grizzly who gave me a solid gold trophy. I think this is the biggest grizzly of mine. I have yet to get a diamond grizzly but maybe one day. Right after the first shot that broke the eerie silence all the others ran away into the wood never to be found again.

I tried to track them for some time but soon realised that they have much better senses than me and when they are alerted they are not easy to track down. So, I just gave up on them.

This was the time when I switched back to the very first map that I played on, the Layton Lakes. This reserve, as the name suggests, is filled with a lot of small lakes which look stunning from a distance. So, I decided to climb a mountain just to share those views with this community.

The sky wasn't clear at all, it was very foggy and cloudy. No sights of the moon too. This was much darker than the Yukon Valley's night. Me and my companion, Sheru, went on a hike to the nearest mountain top. Our destination was a watch tower on top of that mountain which would give us much better views of the whole place.

Sheru was full of energy and soon the night was starting to get brighter indicating the sunrise was close. We didn't want to miss the sunrise so we kept moving. We didn't stop to even take photos on our way. It was like we had a deadline to meet.

But we reached to the top earlier than expected and it was still dark. The watch tower stood firmly on top of this mountain.

I climbed to the top of the tower to see an amazing view of the Layton Lake district. It was still dark and foggy. The lakes were mostly visible though.

I waited for the night to get over, every passing minute it was getting brighter and brighter until the clouds glowed and had orangish hues. The views got better and better. I love this next shot, simply amazing!

The sun rose over the hills in the background. It brightened the entire place. I was watching this like I was watching a real sunrise from the top of a mountain somewhere in the Himalayas back home.

But like all good things, it didn't last long. Soon, the entire sky was engulfed by huge clouds and the weather became much more foggy. It changed rather quickly within minutes. The sun didn't even come out entirely from over that mountain range and it vanished again.

This display of dynamic weather and day/night cycle made me fall in love with this game all over again. This is such a well-made game. It sure has its flows but the raw beauty in its environment design makes it a standout game for me. That's the reason I keep buying more DLC maps for this game.