Well after several weeks of Lady Hoggers (and American Hoggers), I have become quite depressed by reality hog hunting.
I noticed something last night when I was watching a couple of the more recent episodes of Lady Hoggers that I had not realized previously, but when I checked the Tivo'd episodes, was present there as well.
I noticed that the camera operator is consistently able to spot the hogs before the hoggers are, is often fairly close to the hogs to get a shot of the hog's butt as it run's away, and often arrives at the hogs caught by the dogs before any of the hoggers get there. Heck, he even beats the dogs to the hogs sometimes! Obviously, the camera operator has a real knack for getting to the hogs, both in spotting them early and during the catch. I find it amazing that the operator is consistently faster despite having to carry his camera gear.
Then I figured it out when they showed Gary (the male Lady Hogger) running in to control a hog the dogs have. They showed his run in from two different angles. The first angle was from right behind the hog and dogs up close at dog eye level, looking slightly upwards. I could see the top of the hog and dogs in th bottom of the image and Gary running in from the top of the image. Gary has a buddy with him that is coming in almost directly behind Gary.
Then the shot changes to a wider shot from a different angle. Where the camera used in the previous shot should have been, there is only open terrain. As Gary and his partner run in, the partner isn't directly behind Gary anymore, but well off to the side. In other words, they shot the run-in approach and taken down at least twice.
So how is it that the camera operator is always in such a good position to spot hogs running away and often faster than the hoggers and their dogs? All the shots are staged. It would appear that the hogs are previously captured and the camera operator allowed to get into place and the hog released. From the looks of things, they are apparently catching and releasing the same hog (or very similar looking hogs) several times in order to get their shots.
There may be some actual hog catching footage in the shows, but a lot of what is being shown is staged.
Oh, and I really liked the shots from the dog's cameras when the dogs were chasing a hog at dusk. Images went from previously colored footage to dramatic night vision green footage, but there was no changing of the equipment on the dogs. They are using faux night vision. The green footage is digital manipulation of the regular color footage.