Wildlife Photography across the Water: Local Patch

Monday, 5 October 2009

Local Patch - Deer

Following Dave's post last week about Dear and the Rut, I popped along to my local deer park as the sun was going down hoping for some nice contra-jour shots. Sadly, the deer weren't where I needed them to be, but thought I would take a few record shots to illustrate a couple of things.

The first image came out quite nicely, although light was going fast so I had to get the ISO up to 1600. All were shot with the 500f4 + 1.4 converter, and shutter speeds were less than 1/100 sec, resting on a fence, so they are not brilliant, but it was nice to use the 500 again, after a summer long of using the 180 macro.

Fallow Buck with out of focus stately home behind

Behavioural rubbing of foliage with antlers

This shot was to show the tell tale scenting as the buck 'leaks' as it comes up to the rut. As you can see I used flash here. Clearly it doesn't work and nor did I expect to , but again to illustrate the effects that you get back when using flash in this light. Spooky!!

This is posted so you can see the tell tale hind area markings of a Fallow Deer of the black and white 'horseshoes' around the tail.

Hopefully, I will be back there a few times through this month to capture some better images in better light

Martin

1 comment:

Unknown9 October 2009 at 18:17
Great images
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.