THE ”BUTT SHOT” TELLS THE STORY

White-tailed Deer, doe and fawn, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Me and a lot of other fellow wildlife photographers, we all have them somewhere in our picture library, the photo of a White-tailed Deer, looking at the camera with their beautiful eyes. No doubt about it, this is cute and people love to look at this kind of a picture. But does it really tell the story about what’s different between a ”White-tailed” or any other deer in the world? I don’t think it does. Even at most images taken from the side, the unique white on its tail is mostly hidden and hardly visible. Since many years I wanted to make the photo I show you today here in my blog.

We see this gesture with their erected white tail when the deer is on the run quite often here in our woods, but it is mostly a very brief moment that is hard to capture. Yesterday at sunset time I took a last slow drive on the gravel road that borders the Green Island Wetlands on the west side when I saw a doe with her last year born fawn. They moved parallel to the road on my left hand side between prairie grass and were not overly concerned about my presence. There is a water-filled canal between us and I figured out they wanted to cross it at a small bridge down the road. I let them be always a little bit ahead of my car. They stopped, looked at me, I made some clicks, and they moved on. As we approached the bridge I stopped, turned the car and blocked the road, hoping for a shot from the side as they would cross the road. It turned out even better. Both deer crossed the bridge and after that ran for a short distance before they turned towards the woods on the right. I know, ”butt shots” are rude and usually a sign of a missed moment in wildlife photography. This time the photographer drove home with a smile on his face…

P.S.: In case you ask, I have plenty of photos of both deer from this encounter, but this photo sums it all up for the story about White-tailed Deer. There are not too many animals that justify their name by just an iconic gesture…

TODAY’S SURPRISE

White-tailed Deer, Little Maquoketa Valley, Eastern Iowa

Joan and I, we both have seen this young buck recently. We probably know this particular White-tailed Deer since it was a little fawn and watched it visiting our front yard together with its mother and another sibling before, especially during winter.

I went over to a neighbor property today, trying to identify a bird we heard screaming many times before. We had our guesses, but were never totally sure what it was. Today I saw it, and I’m able to confirm that it is a Red-tailed Hawk. The parents and its offspring scream across the valley. I call discoveries like that good news!

While walking back to the house I suddenly became aware of a movement along the edge of the woods. There he stood! The light overall was kinda harsh, but with a dense area of forest in the background, this didn’t play much of a role.

I have photographed does and and fawns of White-tailed here on top of the bluffs at the Little Maquoketa Valley, but having a buck like this in front of the lens is not an every day occurrence. Soon this buck will shed the velvet on its antlers and participate in the rut. I hope to see him again!

SLIVER OF SKY

Young White-tailed Deer, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Durango, Iowa

The sun started to disappear behind the trees on the other side of our valley and there was a nice glow on the snow yesterday evening. Joan’s call, “deer in the front yard” made me leave my desk and run for the camera. A well known White-tailed Deer doe with her two fawns showed up and checked out if any seed droppings were left below our bird feeders. It was too late to open the window without scaring them away and so I shot again through the glass. This fawn looked towards the sunset and had its ears pointed in that direction as well. I have a number of images without that sliver of sky at the top of the picture but I chose this one here. The subtle glow on the fawns fur and on the few dead leaves at the left hand side of the picture become more obvious, or make more sense, by including this small piece of sunset sky. The spot is brighter than the rest of the picture, but not bright enough to prevent the viewers eye coming back to the beautiful face of the young deer. Enjoy the weekend!

Nikon Z6II, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, FTZ adapter,   @ 600 mm, 1/125 s, f/6.3, ISO 1000

WITH A LITTLE LUCK

Fawn, White-tailed Deer, Mines of Spain State Recreation Area, Dubuque, Iowa

Some photos are the result of good preparation ahead of time and the pictures of “Zorro”, the Common Yellowthroat from yesterday’s post, were among them. But sometimes being at the right place at the right time is everything, means luck can play a decisive roll for a good shot. After spending some time with the warbler I hiked back to the car and started to put my gear away. Suddenly two fawns showed up at the edge of the parking lot, frolicking and enjoying themselves. The camera was pulled out of the bag quickly again and a few shots were made. Having both White-tailed Deer fawns in the frame was not an option and so I focussed on the one that was in better light. As quick as they came out of the forest, as fast they disappeared again. I couldn’t ask for a better day of wildlife photography…

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S

PHOTOGRAPHY HAS TO BE FUN…

White-tailed Deer, Upper Mississippi Valley, near Finley’s Landing, Iowa

I know this White-tailed Deer. Have seen it many times during the last few months while I took our dog Cooper down into the Mississippi Valley for a walk or hike. Quite often it is grazing beside the road that leads down to Finley’s Landing and moves out of the way as soon a car comes around the corner. Most of the time it isn’t worth to raise the lens because the deer hides quickly between dense underbrush, but that day, earlier in May, the deer stopped in a spot that had some good light. This is the time when optical stabilization in a lens can make the difference between a sharp or blurry image. The engine of the car is running, vibration is introduced, and of course, the photographer may not have the best position to keep the camera with the heavy lens in a stabile position. Practicing handhold shooting almost every day is the only way to make a successful click when it really matters. The avid reader of my blog knows that I like to go for the environmental shot in my wildlife photography. With the fallen trunk, of probably an old oak in the background, and new shoots of green around, this image has everything to tell the story about the landscape in this part of the Mississippi Valley and its side valleys. It was one of the moments when I drove up the hill with a big smile on my face. Photography has to be fun…. 😊

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 360 mm, 1/200 s, f/6.3, ISO400

VISIT FOR LUNCH

The deeper snow makes our little herd of White-tailed Deer even braver and since a few days two fawns show up already around noon for a lunch. While one ate the seeds that dropped from the bird feeders, its sibling stood guard and observed the surroundings. They must have found out that the photographer prefers this time over the hour after sunset due to better light…😉 Look at the ears! They change direction every few seconds and tell the story about the mission of this little guy.

However, this evening two does and four fawns returned, obviously knowing that I had thrown a couple extra hands of bird seeds onto the snow. At night we hear some coyotes bark, yip, and howl behind the house or down in the valley. Live is not easy for the deer at the moment…

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,   @200 mm, 1/800 s, f/8, ISO200

THE DAILY PRACTICE

White-tailed Deer fawn

Theoretically I could make this photo almost every day right here in front of the house when we have snow on the ground. The White-tailed Deer, who roam the area, know where to find food despite the snow cover. If you hang your bird feeders too low they may empty it within a short period of time. Usually they come for what’s dropped to the ground by birds and squirrels, but if we have really deep snow, I throw a couple extra hands full of seeds out just for the deer. This morning I saw a doe at 5am, and that was still too dark for a picture. The best time is usually in the late afternoon. We have a few fawns, born in 2020, that are brave enough and come all the way to the front porch. If I see them ahead of time and before they walk in, I can open the bedroom window and just wait for them…

I have made photos of White-tailed Deer in better light but we can’t be always choosy. We need to keep the ball rolling, even if weather, light, or other circumstances are not in photographer’s favor. If nothing else, it’s the daily practice behind the camera that counts and that may help us to make the technical side of shooting a subconscious part of the process.

FAWNS IN THE YARD

White-tailed Deer fawn

This White-tailed Deer fawn and its sibling paid us a visit this week again. They were born this spring and we see them often along our road here in the neighborhood. I sneaked quietly onto the balcony with the camera and it took only about 300 mm focal length to get the shot. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get both in the frame at the same time. Look at its fur and you get the idea how seeds are transported from one location to the next by these little guys.

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #14 - WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS IN LOW LIGHT

White-tailed Deer, Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota

I have never been a friend of shooting wildlife with an ISO setting above 250-320. But when you walk out into nature early in the morning or during a day with low light due to overcast, you have to rethink your ideas. The higher the ISO, the lower the resolving power, the more noise in the image, and the lower the dynamic range. But at the other hand, a sharp photo with a higher ISO setting is still better than capturing a blurry picture because shutter speed is too slow as a result of having the ISO settings in the basement. This is in particular true if a very long focal length is employed while handholding the camera. There is a limit where Vibration Reduction or Optical Stabilization, as SIGMA calls it in their lenses, may help you to get a sharp image. The well-disposed viewer of a photo on the web, in a blog post, on Instagram, or any other social site may not see much of a difference, but the real quality bar for a good photograph is the ultimate print.

The photo of this White-tailed Deer, up in Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota was shot at ISO 800. To make it clear, it wasn’t a difficult shot. As I wrote here in the blog before, the deer near a campground are not tame, but they are used to people and don’t run away as soon they see a human. Staying in or near a campground is a safety strategy that at least works during the camping season. Their predators, like wolves, avoid these places.

I have shot handheld at 500-600 mm focal length, 1/60 s, ISO 200 or even lower, but I also have deleted a lot of pictures with this kind of settings. Practice is always the key to success for sharp photos but sometimes a higher ISO can save your butt.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,   at 490 mm, 1/320s, f/6.3, ISO800

WILDLIFE AT HOME

White-tailed Deer, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

With snow on the ground since late October things are a little different this year. It feels like January and I’m almost sure the critters in our woods think the same way. The White-tailed Deer are in the rut and during the last few days I have seen a couple bucks roaming around down at the river and here up on the bluffs of the Little Maquoketa River Valley.

Today a doe with her fawn were hanging around the house in the late afternoon. It is the time of the year when I have the camera always ready to use in combination with the long lens. We see the deer not just during the winter but it is a lot easier than during the summer to make a photo, if the light is just right. I made several clicks with each of them being the subject in the photo, but in a few shots the faun tried to fondle with its mother. Gesture wins over technical perfection in my books, and today’s photo tells the story about their presence this evening the best.

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #10

River Otter, Bear Head Lake, Minnesota

We didn’t come across with the big animals that have their home in northern Minnesota this time, like moose, black bear, or wolf, but we had a good number of wildlife encounters during our trip last month. The best and most memorable was a brief meeting with a River Otter at Bear Head Lake in Bear Head Lake State Park. I went for an early morning walk with the Nikon D750 and 70-200 attached. There were some deer in and around the campground and I was hoping to get a glimpse at them. As I approached the lake an otter just entered one of the logs in front of me. What a surprise! I have seen otters here in eastern Iowa before, but never had a wild otter in front of my camera. I made a number of clicks but should have dialed in an ISO beyond 1600. A shutter speed of 1/100 s was just not enough to freeze the action for a tack sharp photo of this fast moving beautiful otter.

Ruffed Grouse, Lake Vermilion State Park, Minnesota

Movement didn’t play a role with this Ruffed Grouse a couple days earlier, but it was the same kind of low light from a heavy overcast. The grouse just sat at the edge of a parking lot and let me get very close. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep the blacktop out of the frame.

White-tailed Deer, Bear Head Lake State Park, Minnesota

The deer are usually not very shy in and around many campsites. For them it is a relative safe place because predators, like wolfs or coyotes, stay away mostly from busy human places. None of the campsites were really busy in October anymore, some of them we had for ourselves, and the deer can graze pretty undisturbed before the snow covers everything up. This photo was made near our campsite from the kayak during a paddle tour on Bear Head Lake. I liked the environmental aspect of this setting, with the white bark of the birches, some fall colors, and the big pines on the right.

All photos: Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR

Best task

The avid reader of my blog may remember my photos and little stories about “Struppi’, a deer fawn that made herself home in the woods around our house for a while. Well, we have not seen her since we had the last snow storm, about ten days ago. This photo was made at high noon on February 23, 2015 from my office window.

I think there is nothing wrong by having an emotional attachment to a particular critter, especially if it has been the “star” of a photo shoot or, like in this case, the subject of a photo story for several days. We have White-tailed-Deer in our yard every day, and of course, we look out for “Struppi” any time we see a deer. The little guy, that probably lost its mother earlier by a car accident, has not been here since I made this photo. Everything is just speculation, but we have coyotes around here (we can hear them howl more then we ever see them), the presence of a Red Fox, or the uncontrolled roaming of some neighbor’s dogs, it all could be a reason for not seeing “Struppi” anymore.

The photo may not mean anything for anybody else, but for us it is a fond memory, frozen in a few pictures during the winter of 2014/15. Photography at its best task…

DRAMA FOR STRUPPI

We continue watching a small group of White-tailed Deer coming to our house every day. During the last couple days it became more and more clear to us that our favorite little fawn “Struppi” (read my post from February, 18) is facing probably the tragic loss of its mother. She comes always alone and we had two dead deer laying beside the highway down in the valley earlier this week. The other members of the group do everything to scare her away whenever “Struppi" tries to join them near our bird feeders. 

Struppi

Last Wednesday I enjoyed a backlight situation, created by the very low sun, when I caught two shots of a doe hitting “Struppi” with its front leg and bringing the little guy down to its knees. When animals move I shoot mostly short bursts in ‘Continues shooting mode’ with 6 frames per second to maximize my chances for a sharp image. This time I got the two images that tell the story. 

Yes, some of you may say this is sad, or the other deer are mean, but this is just natural behavior for those animals. They all try to protect their food sources and want the best for their own offspring. “Struppi” seems to do fine, she is always the first one here in the morning and just because of that she eats probably more corn than any other deer… By the way, she took a little nap again today. This time right beside our old oak tree trunk in the front yard… :-)

STRUPPI

This is “Struppi”, which translates into English probably as “Scrubby”. I named this little fawn because of its fur, which looks thicker and fuzzier than at any other White-tailed Deer that visit us now every day. A group of 7 - 9 does and fawns made it a habit to show up in our yard since we have the snow on the ground and it became so bitterly cold. “Struppi" has a mind of its own. Sometimes it visits alone, away from the group, but I’m sure the mother is never far away. While most of the deer come around 4 in the afternoon, “Struppi" wants its lunch and checks out the area around the bird feeders already at noon. It isn't as skittish as some of the other deer and as you can see it even sticks out the tongue while I make the picture. Yesterday it took a nap for about an hour, leaning against a fence post and with its back towards the sun. Life is good here, even with temperatures way below freezing… ;-)

LESSON LEARNED

The load of snow we got over the weekend was topped today again with another inch and the temperature dropped quite a bit below freezing. It is the time of the season when life gets really hard for the critters out there. The White-tailed Deer overcome their fear and come out of the woods, very close to the house, and try to find leftovers at the bird feeders or just eat dried up flowers in the garden.

I learned my lesson yesterday when I missed to open the window before a group of deer arrived. I made a few clicks through the glass but the results were not flattering. Remember, this happens usually between 4.00 and 5.00 PM when the light is already fading away and it is hard to make a photo of a moving critter. The little noise from sliding the window down while the deer are present usually scares them away. 

All images:  Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, Nikon SB800 speed light

Today I saw a doe with its fawn approaching and opened the window quickly before they came close to the house. I used a fill flash for some color boost but that did not bother them much. The doe was eating out of the bird feeder while the fawn munched on some dry flowers. 

What do I like about these images? I made of course a few more clicks, some pictures with even better sharpness, but it is again the story telling gesture in both photos that made me choose these two for the blog post. The fawn looks back for its mother, knowing that she still means protection. The knee-deep snow and the snow crystals in the fur tell the story about survival in very harsh winter conditions. Last, but more and more important for my wildlife photography, the composition was made 100% in the viewfinder and no crop in post process was required… I hope you enjoy!