Thursday, June 8, 2023

TJ Ray Serves Up Valentine’s Day Venison

All photos by TJ Ray
All photos by TJ Ray

When he was an English professor at Ole Miss, I heard Dr. TJ Ray was a tough old bird, pushing his students to great lengths to get it right. My guess, those students now look back with profound gratitude.

That was then. These days, Dr. Ray has obviously softened up the edges that so inspired him to inspire others… through words. Now, he does it with visceral imagery and he shares these images with the world (not just his UM students who happened to be in the right place at the right time).

On Valentine’s Day, TJ took his place in his perfunctory “blind” and shot four new guests that visited his sanctuary; two of which had no problem letting anyone concerned know that they had paired.

Let’s let the expert walk us through the scene:

“A quartet of beauties came to eat this afternoon. As you can see, two of them had special affection,” Ray explained. “First one nuzzled the other, then the favor was returned.”

And then… an invitation:

“If you should ever have a yen to shoot deer, come along with your camera. I’ll provide coffee or tea and deer,” Ray offered. “Of course, their schedule is very fluid so we can’t make firm appointments.”

And there you go…

Photo by TJ Ray
Photo by TJ Ray

Photo by TJ Ray
Photo by TJ Ray

Photo by TJ Ray
Photo by TJ Ray


Dr. TJ Ray is a retired professor from the Ole Miss English department. These days, he’s a columnist, Hottytoddy.com contributor and semi-professional photographer shooting all thing Oxford and Lafayette County.

Jeff McVay is a staff writer and graphic designer for Hottytoddy.com. He can be reached at jeff.mcvay@hottytoddy.com.

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