Growing up as a city boy in a non-hunting family, I was well into adulthood before eating venison — a fancy word for deer — for the first time.

The past couple of years, though, it’s become a staple of our winter diet.

One of our nephews is quite the teenage hunter and one of the deer he shoots every year is earmarked for us. Checking off the boxes for the processor reminds me of the scene in “Forrest Gump” when Bubba spends a few days listing all the ways to cook shrimp.

There’s deer sausage, ground deer, deer tenderloin, deer steaks, deer burgers …

Last winter we wound up with 25 or 30 pounds of ground deer meat that lasted for months. It’s a little dry, since it’s so lean, but mixing it with ground beef made for some really good hamburgers.

We’re looking forward in the Bowker house to this year’s batch of venison, and at The Vicksburg Post’s house another bountiful harvest that comes with it — deer photos.

For nearly 50 years, the publication of hunting photos in The Post has been a Vicksburg tradition. If bagging your first deer is a rite of passage, then having your picture with it published in our pages is a close second.

It’s a tradition we’re proud to carry on, both in our print edition and online as the transformation to a digital media world continues. We invite our readers to send us photos of the deer — or rabbits, squirrels, fish, alligators and any other critter that winds up in the deep freezer — they’ve harvested throughout the year.

We’ll publish them in our print edition, on our website vicksburgpost.com, and for the fourth year in a row through our Hunters’ Hall of Fame online showcase.

Just like in the woods, however, there are important safety rules to follow when you send us your photos. They help keep things orderly and from us getting sent to Facebook jail for publishing graphic content:

• Photos should be submitted online at vicksburgpost.com/huntershalloffame or emailed to sports@vicksburgpost.com with something along the lines of “hunting photo” in the subject line. Please include a contact number in case we need more information, as well as the names of the people pictured; the size of the animal; and the date and location of the hunt.

• If there are any interesting details about the hunt, let us know. Maybe we’ll write a little longer story on it.

• When taking photos, check to make sure they are well lit and in focus before you wrap up the moment. Use a flash or light up the area with headlights if it’s dark. We’ve seen tons of examples of a shaky hand or dark photo ruining a memorable moment.

• Please keep blood and gore to a minimum. Not only are the photos more pleasant to look at, but these days there is a very real possibility of a gory photo getting flagged as “graphic content” when it’s shared on social media.

If it looks like you’ve been hunting with Jason Voorhees, try a different angle that crops out the worst of the wounds and gore.

• If it’s a picture of a first deer, we prefer pictures of children before they have been blooded. It’s a little more palatable for a wide audience.

• Be careful with your weapons. We often receive photos in which rifles are propped up on deer with the barrels pointing toward the hunter. Even if it’s unloaded, always keep the fundamentals of gun safety in mind.

That’s it. Have fun, make memories and fill up the freezer this winter. Then share your photos with us so we can share them with the world. A tasty deer burger might be devoured in a few minutes, but those memories will be savored forever.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com