Share your Best Deer Stalking Shot

Great pics. The goose in the background makes the photo. B

I saw this for the first time in 25years if hunting this year. Got some pics but with brush and all didn't turn out to well. This photo is great. I would give anything to be able to get a photo like this

Great picture. I got to ask do you all get shots like this driving around and just getting lucky or do you set up blinds and sit?

Good pics. Any suggestions you can give on using that lens for wildlife. I have the same lens and would be considered a rookie.

Whitetails make the best photographs. Good work

KT29 wrote in post #19185839
A whitetail deer enjoying our much to warm of a winter. Nice now, pay later.

Hosted photo: posted by KT29 in
./showthread.php?p=191​85839&i=i195674011
forum: Wildlife

.
The warm winter with little snow cover, means that the deer will be in top condition this spring and summer. . Which usually means better-than-normal antler growth for the bucks! . And hardly any winter kill from predation. . And higher rates of fawn survival, as well. . Deer thrive in every way when there's a mild winter.


.

Good eye

Precision308 wrote in post #19190041
.
I got to ask do you all get shots like this driving around and just getting lucky or do you set up blinds and sit?
.

.
I can't speak for others, but the way I get my deer photos is very intentional and planned out. . I do hundreds of hours of research on the internet, and year-round communication with other deer photographers, to find out where the best places in the United States are to photograph Whitetail Deer. . Then I normally take the month of November to go to those places and photograph them.

November is their breeding season, a.k.a. the "rut", which of course yields the best photographic opportunities. . There are two reasons why the rut is so good for photography:

1. . . The deer are so consumed with the desire to breed that they lose a little (sometimes a lot) of their normal caution, and therefore it is easier to get close to them and have them go about their deer business as though you weren't even there.


2. . . The deer are very active, engaging in all kinds of different rut behavior. . Rut behavior includes .....

bucks making and maintaining scrapes

bucks making rubs

bucks and does checking scent posts

bucks sparring with other bucks

bucks fighting with other bucks

bucks posturing and intimidating other bucks (puffing themselves up to look huge and formidable)

bucks traveling far and wide, searching for does in heat

bucks chasing does

bucks tending does (which includes the breeding of the doe)

Because the deer's breeding hormones are coursing thru their veins like mad, they are full of life and energy. . This, of course, makes for much more compelling photographs than one can get at other times of year. . When the deer are not breeding, of course they are still beautiful, but they are quite docile, and just mill about, feed, lie down, walk to another area, mill about some more, feed again, lie down again, etc. . This doesn't exactly make for the most engaging photography.

Another thing to note is that during the rut, bucks necks and chests are much more massive and muscular than at all other times of the year. . A huge, brutal beast of a buck can look rather pathetic when his neck goes back down to a "pencil neck" after the breeding season is over. . You really only get two or two and a half months each year to photograph them when they are at their majestic best.

So the main keys are to find a place that has lots of deer that aren't afraid of people - like a park or wildlife refuge. . And then to plan your trip for when the deer are rutting. . This will result in far more excellent photo opportunities than just aimlessly driving about, or hiking about, and hoping that you come across some deer. . Planning and strategy are everything!

When I photograph deer, I normally walk around the woods in the known territories of given bucks. . I don't use blinds at all for deer photography because when I find a good buck, I need to be mobile so that I can walk around the buck to line him up with the best background, most favorable light, no brush or twigs between me and the buck, etc. . If I'm stuck in one place, then I won't be able to get the best composition.

There are two places where I photograph deer that are wildlife refuges that have rules that say you must remain on or along the roads - no hiking off into the back country. .So when I shoot deer at those places, it is mostly car-based. . I drive up and down the refuge roads until I see a worthy buck, and then park the car, get out, set up my camera and tripod, and hope the buck comes close enough to the road for quality photographs. . I like walking through the woods a lot more than this road-based photography, but one does what one must do to get the photos, and sometimes there are really big bucks at these refuges.

If you're interested in seeing some of my deer photos, I have a webpage with nothing but Whitetails .....

https://www.tomreichne​r.com/Whitetail-Deer/

I even have a few of the fighting photos there that you seem to like so much.


.

Thanks for the reply. With my employment I don't have the luxury of taking a month off. I do hunt and live in southern Indiana and got some decent photos this year. I just bring my camera along on the hunt. I deer hunt. I photo deer that I don't want to harvest. All deer in our area are heavily hunted and mostly scared of people even the state parks here allow hunting under certain draw regulations. Very nice photo sir

Precision308 wrote in post #19190120
Thanks for the reply.

You are quite welcome.
.

Precision308 wrote in post #19190120
With my employment I don't have the luxury of taking a month off. I do hunt and live in southern Indiana and got some decent photos this year.

Well, you could do much shorter deer photography trips, if you were interested in spending your time that way. The Cades Cove area of Smoky Mountain National Park, in extreme eastern Tennessee, is pretty good for photographing rut behavior, and I'm thinking that it would be less than a day's drive for you.

In response to SYS's photo of bucks sparring, you said,

308Shooter wrote in post #19189863
What I wouldn't give to see this in the woods, let alone capture as well as you did. Great shot SYS!!

If you would really give a lot to see or photograph that behavior, then you may be willing to drive a few hundred miles to have a very high probability of doing just that, because such behavior is regularly observed in Cades Cove!

There is also an area in Virginia that yields some very good Whitetail opportunities - Shenandoah National Park. . That's probably just a few hundred miles from you, as well.
.

Precision308 wrote in post #19190120
All deer in our area are heavily hunted and mostly scared of people even the state parks here allow hunting under certain draw regulations.

Well that would make it extremely difficult to get quality photos. . I specifically target areas where no hunting is allowed, so that the deer aren't too skittish. . Trying to get beautiful photos of heavily hunted deer is pretty much an exercise in futility, especially if you are mostly looking to photograph the larger, mature bucks that are 5 1/2 years old and older.

In heavily hunted areas, very few bucks ever make it to true maturity, and the few that do simply don't allow themselves to be seen out in the open where one can get obstruction-free photos. . I live in an area with a lot of deer, both Mule Deer and Whitetails, but I don't even bother trying to photograph them around here, because they are heavily hunted. . I could spend 10 lifetimes trying to get a good deer picture around here, and never have any success at all.
.

Precision308 wrote in post #19190120
Very nice photo sir

Thank you!


.

Out for a jog with a buddy

.

On this foggy morning, I got many close-ups of the buck that you see in the background, yet the photo I like best from that shoot is this image with the does in front of him.

MULE DEERS (Odocoileus hemionus)

Ya I've been to caves cove area and am actually taking the family there on a trip this early summer. Maybe I should plan a trip for later in the year even if it is just a weekend. What time frame do you all have the best luck in for the rut down there.

Precision308 wrote in post #19190764
Ya I've been to caves cove area and am actually taking the family there on a trip this early summer. Maybe I should plan a trip for later in the year even if it is just a weekend. What time frame do you all have the best luck in for the rut down there.

The rut in Cades Cove is later than it is in most of the United States, due to its more southern latitude. . To the best of my knowledge, the peak of the rut runs mostly from November 20th to December 15th in the Cove. . This the time when does are actually coming into heat and being bred - not just being pursued. . Bucks chasing does around doesn't really tell you anything at all about the rut, because that can happen for as many as 6 weeks before the rut even begins.

The rut isn't really dependent on weather or moon phases, as some misguided deer enthusiasts and so-called researchers seem to think. . It is based on hormonal changes in the deer that are brought about by photo period, which is the length of daylight vs. darkness. . Therefore, it remains consistent from year to year to year. . So you can count on the rut peaking at exactly the same time every year.

Believe science - not your eyes. . What you see happening in front of you is only a tiny little sample of everything that goes on. . Some dude sees two does being bred in the same day and thinks "the rut is really going strong", not realizing that maybe the peak of the rut faded out a week prior, and he just happened, by chance, to see two outliers. . Once one has amassed photo records of hundreds, or thousands, of breeding encounters, and have dates and times and locations for them all, then, and only then, do one's personal observations have any meaning.

I've actually had photographers and hunters tell me "the rut is over", or "the rut hasn't really started yet" , all because they spend a day or three afield and didn't see any deer, or any breeding activity. . As if the tiny little slice that they see means anything at all. . Usually, when they say this, is it actually the very peak of the rut, with tons of deer breeding activity going on. . They just didn't happen to see it, because they don't happen to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. . They base their conclusion on what tiny little bit they saw, instead of basing their thoughts on a hundred years of scientific data. . Sheesh!

But yeah, back to your question, if you go any time from November 20 thru December 15, you should have rutting activity going strong (whether you are lucky enough to see it or photograph it is another matter altogether).

.