Autumn Deer

This time of year is great for photographing wildlife, deer in particular. The main reasons: animals are more focused on fattening up for the winter and mating. Most other concerns like "safety" and "security" go by the wayside. Normally skittish deer that would slink into the shadows at the first sight of a camera wielding human will hang around and stare with curiosity. That is, until the first day of firearms deer hunting season (which begins at sunrise on November 13th this year in Missouri).

Some thoughts on photographing autumn deer:

• Use the longest lens you have: 200mm is good, 300mm is better, 400mm is great
• If you don't have a long lens, use whatever you have. Make a landscape photograph with the deer as an element of interest. Use a medium focal length lens to make an environment photograph of the deer. Not all photos need to be tight "portraits."
• Go where the deer congregate: watering holes, oak trees with lots of acorns, meadows
• Does and yearling fawns will usually be less defensive than bucks. You can approach much closer.
• Approach quietly, but don't try to sneak up on the deer or they might get spooked. I find that if I move slowly, don't make too much eye contact and act like I am just out for a stroll the deer don't get antsy.
• Urban wildlife areas are great for photographing deer since they are accustomed to humans and don't see much (if any) hunting pressure. They are still wild animals, just used to having the occasional human around.

More to come as autumn progresses,

D.


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The interesting things I run across...

I was out last weekend for a trip around the Ozarks and decided to stop at Elephant Rocks State Park to scramble around on the granite dome and perhaps take a few photos. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the clanking and clashing I could hear all the way down in the parking lot turned out to be a group of a dozen fencers from the St. Louis area for an open air sparring session. Interesting. Definitely unexpected, yet interesting. I sat with my dad and watched a few bouts (am I using the correct terminology here?). I must admit the setting was pretty spectacular for a fencing contest; quite a bit more dramatic than a typical city gymnasium. Since it was a warm October Sunday, the crowds at the park were worse than usual and the mid-day light was bad, so we didn't bother with any photos other than a quick cell phone video to share.

D.
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