Picture of the Week

Photographer Gretchen Pelham was simply photographing a beautiful scene of huntsman Ryan Johnsey standing by the cornfield with the Smoky Mountains in the background. She had no idea she had caught a hunting drama!

Limestone, Tennessee, on the banks of the Nolichucky River (translation: “the River of Death”) under the shadow of the Smoky Mountains. It was the first staff hunt of the season. I had picked up a few puppies and our ancient hound Ariat hanging out at the trailers and put them in a section of corn that I knew was close to the pack, still searching for game. Both puppies came right back out of the corn but Ariat started boo-hooing on a line. The pack soon joined her and off they went.

About an hour later I was sitting on a hill on my horse, listening to the pack circle and roar by me again, and all I did was take a burst of photos of Ryan Johnsey, MFH, our huntsman, with the Smoky Mountains in the background. That’s it. I saw Ryan and the mountains through the lens. Nothing else.

Innocence and expectation, tenderly captured by Lucy Clarke, is what your editor sees in the expressions of these Monmouthshire foxhound puppies in southeastern Wales. Baily’s tells us, “In 1695, Mr. Powell kept a pack of hounds that hunted anything. Mr. John “Squire” Lewis, Master from 1738–88, married Miss Powell, kept hounds at Llantilio, and hunted fox, hare, and otter. From 1788–1832, hounds hunted fox and hare. In 1832, Mr/ Lewis wished to give up keeping hounds, and Captain Stretton, then quartered at Brecon, volunteered to take them. Mr. Lewis presented him with the pack, which was installed in kennels near Abergavenny. Captain Stretton hunted hounds from 1832 to 1835. The Monmouthshire Hunt Club was established about 1835. The Hunt Club ceased to run the Hunt in 1945, since which time control has been vested in a Committee of farmers and representatives of the Hunt Club.” The pack composed of English and English-Welsh crosses is the property of the Committee.

This Douglas Lees photograph captures the huntsman’s horse expressing himself most clearly!

Click image for larger version. / Joanne Maisano photo
Following the foxhounds of the Blue Ridge Hunt from their meeting at the Reid Family’s Stonebridge fixture the other day, photographer Joanne Maisano got herself in the right place at the right time. Camera in hand, watching hounds mark the stickpile, Joanne shot an action sequence that wildlife photographers dream about. Be sure to click the image for a larger version. You don’t want to miss the expressions on the faces of every living creature captured in that single moment. Not a word of text is necessary!

(Front to rear) fox, hounds, and huntsman Graham Buston

We’ve selected a series of photos from Joanne’s action-sequence to present a slide show of what transpired, and one version of what might have been running through the fox’s mind during its escape. Click on the readmore link (below, open to everyone), then click on the first image (below) in the sequence.

No, not a diving contest, though a pretty one. The winning photograph in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Contest is Angela Bohlke’s photo of a red fox hunting for a vole in Yellowstone National Park. Bohlke won a seven-night safari in Kenya as well as a camera prize package from Nikon. Next year’s competition opens on June 1, 2017. Posted January 10, 2017

Click image to enlarge. Mark Houliston shot the action with a Canon EOS 1D X, EF28-300 f3.5-5.6L IS USM shutter speed 1/1000th second Two hours into the Blue Ridge Hunt meet at Fox Spring Woods Farm, huntsman and hounds were east of the meet and drawing north. I’m familiar with this area as I have walked much of the land with the Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles. I drove a half mile north to a clearing where foxes have been viewed in the past and waited. After two minutes of scanning the fields I saw a fox running towards me through a riding ring, down a hill and under two fences, finally turning east and disappearing over a hill as my camera captured every step. I lowered the camera, looked back to the west in anticipation of the arrival hounds and huntsman, and was greeted by a second fox that ran nearly the same line as the first. I followed the second fox from left to right, capturing every step. I lowered the camera once again and waited thirty seconds before hounds, whipper-in, huntsman, and finally the field took up the chase. Posted December 23, 2016

Click photograph to view larger image. Janet Ladner captured this stunning scene at Gwennap Head near Land’s End, Cornwall, hunting with the Lambo Beagles (UK) along the cliff tops towering above the Celtic Sea. Next stop, Ireland.

Denya Dee Leake shot this dramatic photo and recorded the cry of hounds with her smartphone. Hounds found a fox near the kennels, sang all the hound music that one could wish for, and pushed their quarry hard through the course of the morning in a huge circuit and finally to ground back near the find. A fine school for the young entry and an exciting start to the Blue Ridge Hunt’s 129th season. More than twenty riders and staff, along with car followers, braved the early hour start on the morning of September 3rd, 2016.

Photo by Lili Wykle, MFH and huntsman, Stonewall Hounds (VA) In his day, this aged celebrity, now basking in retirement, had the judges (and the female foxhounds, many of whom he knew ... intimately), swooning at the sight of him. Now weary of autograph seekers and those pesky selfie-photographers, he prefers to hang out incognito, as you see.

He was perhaps as strikingly handsome an American foxhound as this reporter has ever seen, and he passed his genes on to generations of grand champion foxhounds—both male and female—to follow.

Nancy Stevens-Brown, out with the Red Rock Hounds (NV), captured this heart-warming image of three foxhound puppies exuberantly frolicking midst an explosion of snow and flailing legs.