It's hard to say....if you were trapsing around all over the woods looking for your deer, that could have spooked them out of the area for a while (scent).

As for the flash spooking the game, I don't think it's anything detrimental. Do you use a digital or old style 35mm? I think noise would be more of a factor.

As for me, I personally don't like to have the camera close to my stand locaitons, cause I'd rather have my stand locations be as natural as possible.

For the distance from the trail, sounds about right...