Photographing Deer
TIME OF YEAR
Autumn is the time for the Red & Fallow Deer Rut and there really is no better time of year to photograph these magnificent creatures, an iconic mammal of the British countryside. The Red Deer is our biggest land mammal, and male stags can grow up to 137cm tall to the shoulder, and weigh up to 200kg. A native species ranging from the highlands to East Anglia and Exmoor, they are also present in many Royal Deer Parks too, Richmond and Bushy park to name but a few.
LOCATION
Locating Red Deer can be a challenge, especially if you are after the truly wild animals in places like the Highlands, Exmoor & Northumbria. However by conducting good research, talking to locals and heading to more wild locations it is possible to get some great shots safely without causing the deer distress in an already stressful time of year. The more well known locations where the deer are more used to people you will have better chances of both getting close and capturing some superb images will be vastly improved. Some great locations to try include, Bradgate Park, RSPB Minsmere, Richmond and Bushy Park in London and the New Forest, where deer are quite easily spotted.
STALKING & APPROACHING DEER
Deer are wild animals, even in the parks, so they have the potential to be very dangerous and can cause serious injury if you try to get too close; never put yourself in between rival stags or his harem of hinds. Be very careful, bide your time and study the environment and evaluate the scene, and watch their body language for signs or stress. Keep an eye out for the dominant male Stag and work out wind direction making sure you stalk in to wind, this drives your scent away from the Deer which have a seriously good sense of smell. Move directly towards your subject, keeping as low as possible whether thats walking bent over, crawling on all fours, use environmental cover like trees, heather gorse and bracken as cover, stop regularly and go to ground to asses the situation and take your time. If they have seen you it’s likely you will be unsuccessful this time and its wise to move away. Reevaluate your situation and try a new tact. The welfare of the subject you are photographing should always come first.
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
Using a lens of at least 300mm is advisable but in deer parks a 70-200mm should do the trick as the Deer are quite habituated to human presence. This lens selection should help you isolate your subject without having to get too close, wider angle lens ranges will be useful for displaying your subjects in their environments and give the image a nice natural feel rather than a full frame shot. The key is always get low which gives your image so much more of a personal feel at eye level giving your image great impact and can tell a story much better; use ferns & bracken to produce out of focus background blur, looking for stags with their heads up or with antlers on show adds to a nice image. With mist and early morning light can produce spectacular images, with a fading sun producing beautiful golden tones which compliment an autumnal scene are truly awesome.
IN SUMMARY
To be able to produce some great images, keep persevering and head back to the same locations. Study your subject, learn when they are most active, how they move, this will aid you in positioning yourself well ahead of the action to enable you to get some great shots. Most of all just enjoy being out in nature, and remember most of the time the experience is always better than the picture.
Please let me know how you get on out in the field, contact me via any of my social media channels or message me on the post comments or the button below.
LINKS TO SOME RED DEER HOTSPOTS
