"We begin with the simplest and most obvious: the physical objects that the outdoorsman may seek, find capture, and carry away. In this category are wild crops such as game and fish, and the symbols or tokens of achievement such as heads, hides, photographs and specimens. All these things rest upon the idea of trophy. The pleasure they give is, or should be, in the seeking as well as in the getting. The trophy, whether it be a bird's egg, a mess of trout, a basket of mushrooms, the photograph of a bear, the pressed specimen of a wild flower, or a note tucked into the cairn on a mountain peak, is a certificate. It attests that its owner has been somewhere and done something – that he has exercised skill, persistence, or discrimination in the age-old feat of overcoming, outwitting, or reducing-to-possession. These connotations which attach to the trophy usually far exceed its physical value."
--Aldo Leopold
First exposure: 4/15/2002 5:02:37pm
Last exposure: 4/15/2002 5:08:12pm
First exposure: 4/25/2006 5:20:28pm
Last exposure: 4/25/2006 5:22:47pm
All images © 2007 Mike McDowell