I know you weren't specifically directing this to me, but I think you'd be surprised how many pictures get taken on travel corridors, plots, and scrapes. I get tens of thousands of pictures every year from two dozen cameras spread over 3-5 properties and zero corn or bait piles. This past season I ran cams on 4 properties. My favorite places are scrapes and pinch points along travel corridors.
First one's in Coffee Co., a waterway crossing pinch point. I get thousands of pics per year on that camera. Almost no deer move through the property without crossing in front of that camera. Year round daily pics.
Second one is a broken strand fence crossing. I get thousands of pics from that camera alone.
Third one is the bottom flat of a ravine where 4 different finger ridge tips converge where a hollow ends in a bowl.
Fourth is a buck bedding area on the edge of a point where a long hogback ridge drops in elevation into a 200yd long saddle before rising back up to level again. From mid Oct through mid Dec I catch a variety of big bucks regularly using this bedding zone.
Aside from a few scrapes inside food plots, I don't hang cameras at food. I don't hunt over food so I find no value in putting a camera to watch deer eat. Whatever the food source is that deer eat, there are multiple paralleling trails leading to it, and chances are better than not that there's a spot where those trails get funneled into a convergence such as shown. By default, any deer you catch at the food can also be caught at that pinch point, and since the deer only briefly pass through that spot, it can be hunted over & over without fear of blowing out the food source. You can hang & check a camera without fear of spooking the deer away. You can access stands without spooking deer away. These aren't spots deer hang out, except the bedding. But even this specific bedding area isn't typical. There's no cover. It's just a spot with a view overlooking a thick doe bedding area 150yds below. Bucks stay for a few minutes to a couple hours, only in middle of day, then move along. They don't stay all day long like a core bed, so chances of busting a buck out is possible but not likely.
My point isn't to argue, only to offer a different perspective. Food isn't a requirement for good trail cam action. It's not even the best. Scouting pinch points isn't as easy or "instant gratification" as pouring out corn, but it's well worth the effort. You're not attracting deer to a spot. You're seeing them in their natural routine. For hunting purposes I find that to be infinitely more valuable.
