The weather hasn't really been particularly conducive to any mist forming recently. It's too mild overnight, and the forecast is predicting a heat wave for the next week or so, so definitely no misty photography in the foreseeable future.
I decided to go for a wander in the park with just my telephoto lens attached to my camera body, and no other equipment. My camera bag was wonderfully light! I headed out after lunch, a usually unthinkable time for me to go and take photographs. The sun was behind some high cloud, and the light was very soft. I had a very enjoyable walk, and ended up near a number of groups of red deer. It is the birthing season, and there are now some very cute little calves that have been recently born. The hinds and calves hang out in groups and the hinds are very protective of their babies. At this time of the year they need to be given lots of space, or they can be aggressive if they feel they are being threatened. All my photos were taken a good distance away, and some of them cropped during processing.
The stags were also grouped together. The main activity seems to be eating grass. The vibe is so chilled that it's amazing to think that in about 10 weeks from now they'll be fighting one another in the rut.
I spent some time hanging out a safe distance from a group of mature stags. They were not remotely bothered by my presence.
This chap below was enjoying some fresh leaves. It is a great illustration of why the tree canopies in the park have flat bottoms. The leaf line sits exactly at the point where the deer cannot reach the leaves. Anything below this point will be eaten.
Here's a link to one of my older posts that has a number of photos that illustrate the flat bottomed, deer nibbled, tree canopy shape:
https://peakd.com/hive-194913/@cathgothard/misty-sunrise
After a while the deer decided to wander over in my direction. Their line of travel brought them pretty close, but they were definitely more interested in food than in me, so I remained still and watched them walk by to their destination, which was another tree with just reachable leaves.
These young deer were grazing, when a flock of starlings swooped down upon them. It happened so suddenly that I'm super happy I managed to grab a shot. The shutter speed was 1/400th of a second, which was more than fast enough to capture leisurely grazing deer, but not fast enough to completely freeze the motion of the starlings. I rather like that the starlings have a little motion blur, it's a lovely graphic illustration of their relative speed.
Lastly, a few photos of some calves.
Sticking close to mum.
Taken at 400mm and cropped.
There is a full moon next week, and there is a potential plan to go and shoot my first ever moonrise. If that happens, I'll publish a post about that next Saturday. Fingers crossed for clear skies. 🤞
I can be found on...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathgothard/
Website: www.cathgothard.com
Very cool nature photos 🤗👌👌👌🍷🍷 I hope you find them more soon.
Thanks so much @foxkoit! Really glad that you like the photos. :)
Npr ;) ... all time happy to see good photos .... just not stop and try find more .
I'm always taking photos. It's a very addictive hobby. Thanks again for leaving the comment! :)
I absolutely love them. I haven't crossed paths in a while with him but I befriended and fed a Stag and his family for years. I miss them
They are very beautiful animals. No wonder you miss your deer family. :)
Hi @cathgothard,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
Thanks so much for the support @teamuksupport! :)
Looking forward to that moonrise for you. These shots here turned out pretty incredible. Really well done. Keep up the great work!
Thanks @castleberry! I am really looking forward to taking some moonrise photos. It'll make a refreshing change, and I wont have to get up at silly-o-clock in the morning.😁 I really hope that the clouds behave...
Glad that you like my photos! :)
Take some coffee or tea or both with you! hahaha If we are lucky the fog will follow you and we can get some wolf-moon photos! Cheers!
I already have some misty full moonsets! Sadly no wolves though. :o)
Gorgeous photos as always!
!PIZZA
You are very kind @tdctunes! Hopefully my next deer photos will be taken in some misty goodness. ;o)
!PIZZA
!PIZZA
This is exactly what I need! 😍
!PIZZA
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
cathgothard tipped tdctunes (x1)
qwerrie tipped cathgothard (x1)
tdctunes tipped cathgothard (x2)
@cathgothard(2/5) tipped @qwerrie (x1)
Please vote for pizza.witness!
OMG these pictures are amazing!! I really love them
Thank you so much! That's a lovely comment. Glad that you liked the post. :)
I am glad there was no mist for a change (not that I don't adore your misty pictures), you took some great shots of those beautiful creatures!
We have goats here to "take care" of the trees's shape but yours seem much more elegant :)
Thank you @fotostef! It was really nice going out with just one lens, and at a different time of the day. I was lucky that there were so many deer all hanging out in the same area. They were very cooperative. :)
I guess that you have similar shaped trees then. But with a slightly lower tree canopy? :)
Nice shots!!
Thank you so much! :)
Lovely photos, thank you!
Glad that you enjoyed the post @muhelja55! :)
Wow ! They look amazing. And wish you all the best for your next task on full moon.
Cheers
Thanks so much! Really glad that you liked the post. I really hope that the full moon outing happens, and that the conditions are right. The weather forecast seems to be so inaccurate at the moment so keeping my fingers crossed!
Love the picture with the deer jumping to the tree! I've seen these animals for many times but never like that 💚
Thank you @gabrielatravels! They seem to really enjoy eating tree leaves. I suppose it makes a nice change from the grass. :)
Absolutely! :)
That starling shot is fantastic!!
Thanks so much @corvidae! It happened so suddenly, I was completely unprepared. Fortunately I'd already taken a couple of shots of these deer, so the camera knew where to focus when they swooped down.
These photos are worth 1000 upvotes :) i really like them because such scenes we did not see much in my country because of random hunting, and in the forests there were almost nothing left but wolves and pigs.
Thank you and have a nice day!
Thanks so much @benainouna! That's a lovely comment. I'm sad to hear that you don't have many deer where you are. Wolves and pigs are also fantastic animals, but I suppose it's better to have a range of species diversity. :)
Have a nice day too!
Incredible!
Such a great post
sangat indah pandangannya,saya sangat menyukai
Terima kasih banyak! :)
Thanks so much @williamspaul1! Really glad that you like the post. :)
This is once a lifetime experience. What a beautiful and wide range of captures. Details, Poof!
Thanks so much @suzn.poudel! The deer live in a wildlife park close to were I live, so I am very fortunate to see these beautiful animals quite often. I don't usually photograph them, as I mainly take landscape photos. But I really enjoyed this photography outing, so I will be doing more wildlife photography. :)
His horns are glowing! Very enjoyable forest 'streetphoto'
!PIZZA
Haha! The velvet on the antlers does catch the light. I like the idea of 'street photos' in nature. Maybe you've invented a new genre?!
!PIZZA
I love nature photos, and really like your camera shoots
Thanks so much @rico.csirait! Really glad that you enjoyed my post. :)
Great shots Cath! What a great time you must have had taking all these pictures. Beautiful.
Thanks so much Sara! It was a lovely afternoon outing, and I was glad to come across the deer. Sometimes I can go to the park and cover a lot of ground, and not see any. :)
Thank you so much @azamsohrabi! I find nature photography to be a very relaxing way to pass the time. The starling shot was very lucky! :)