Brothers in arms … and camera lenses

A couple of local brothers have turned their love of the outdoors into a potential career by capturing their escapades on camera.

Jon and Jake Hodge grew up in northwest Spokane before moving near Seven Bays and finishing their high school careers in Davenport.

They’ve joined with friends and like-minded enthusiasts to form Rack’D Up Outdoors, and the crew currently has hunting videos airing on the Pursuit Outdoor Network (393 Dish Network and on 604 on Direct TV) through the end of June.

Rack’D Up Outdoors is competing with six other crews that have also produced hunting videos. All the teams seek to have viewers vote on the best videos. The winner gets to produce a full season of shows on the network, Jon Hodge said.

“We carry our own fulltime jobs and family life. But you have to get your foot in the door,” Hodge said. “In the hunting industry, that’s half the battle. We’ll just see where it goes and see what doors open up from there.”

The crew, which includes hunters from all over the west, has filmed hunts for elk, bear, turkey, bighorn sheep, pronghorn and small game.

“We got into filming or own personal hunts for personal use,” Jon Hodge said. “We thought, ‘Shoot, this would be a good opportunity to share it with others.’”

But just the logistics of getting all the team members in one place can be daunting.

Jon Hodge works as a security guard in Kennewick. His brother Jake works for Garco Construction in Spokane. Another team member works as a railroad conductor in Spokane Valley. Other team members live in north central Washington, Montana. Jake’s wife, Lanica Hodge, works as a fulltime taxidermist near Seven Bays.

“When the door closes for the day job, the night job kicks in,” Jake Hodge said. “It all derives from a common passion. Instead of feeling like work, we are playing.”

When the team can get together, they spend hours studying the hunting regulations from Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Alaska and Nevada.

“We are also shooting the breeze, talking about our hunts, our experiences and the tag draw results,” Jake Hodge said. “Everything is strategic to maximize our time in the outdoors.”

The team has to split up the time and schedule hunts to make sure each team has a crew to film what can turn out to be days of back-breaking climbs and hunts from dawn until dusk.

“It wasn’t intended to be a venture where it would necessarily be our new occupations,” Jake Hodge said. “But we want to make sure we do the best effort we can to see what kind of opportunities come forward in the future.”

Speaking of the future, Lanica Hodge, who films some of the hunts, is expecting to give birth in less than two months.

“We are working on our next Rack’D Up team member right now,” he said.