62 Nebraskaland • October 2020
THE LAST STOP
By Jeff Kurrus
NOT QUITE SURE I PULLED IT OFF
I've never owned more decoys in my life.
Most of them came when a buddy decided to
upscale his current supply and was looking for
a bargain shopper.
Enter me.
Even though he was willing to easily part
with them, our hunting party marveled at
how green the mallard heads were compared
to the ones we had been hunting over.
We already had a pile of stand-up Canada
geese dekes for field hunting, but during one
of our hunts, several mallards had repeatedly
worked our Canadas, leading us to wonder,
"What would happen if we added mallards
to our set?" There's always a reason for more
dekes, we have long understood that. And this
was ours.
After the purchase, we moved them into the
shed, and I couldn't help but stare. Man, they
were green. And when the light hit them just
right, they shone just like they were out of the
box. But did they shine bright enough for a
photo? I was willing to find out.
I spent the better part of two afternoons
asking my kids to repeatedly open and close
the shed doors to varying degrees in an effort
to make photos of my "new" decoys.
Photographers are constantly looking at
scenes and imagining, with the right kind of
soft, early-morning or late-day light, what
that scene might look like through a camera
lens.
To this day, I rearrange the decoys every
time I walk into the shed just because I'm still
not sure if I captured the photo I wanted.
Maybe I just need more decoys.
PHOTO
BY
JEFF
KURRUS
