Almost Ready

Gallery: WildlifePosted August 29, 2014116 views3 comments

I was out early this morning at the local nature preserve and came upon this nice black-tailed buck. He's almost ready for the rut as the velvet on the antlers has dried and he's in the process of rubbing it all off and polishing them up. I started photographing a smaller buck who kept looking to the left. Finally this guy appeared and was the apparent reason for the looks from the smaller buck. This guy was headed for a group of does and fawns but they ignored him the best I can tell. Might be a different story in a month or so. In addition to the shedding of the velvet, he's starting to shed his summer coat (reddish) and replacing it with the winter coat (grayish). I reduced the exposure 1 stop, added some contrast and a little saturation. Lightening the blacks brought the histogram to inside the end point. Comments and critiques are welcome and appreciated.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60 with EF 70-200mm f/4 at 200mm
1/2000th at f/4 and ISO 800
tripod
Lightroom 5

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on August 30, 2014 at 12:00 PM

I like this one better than your previous post. Nice exposure on the deer. But, I find the OOF branch to be distracting. Wonder if you could crop some off the bottom and right side to reduce the size of the branch. Hope you can follow this guy through the rut. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on September 2, 2014 at 12:12 AM

The antlers against the dark background makes this more arresting. The tangle of out of focus fallen tree in the foreground is a major distraction to the eye, in my opinion. The area you are working in is a real challenge for finding clean and uncluttered surroundings! That said, it is cool to document and become acquainted with the local deer population!

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by David Bogener on September 5, 2014 at 2:56 PM

Agree that the foreground is distracting, but I do really like the way the antlers stand out from the dark background

Registered on October 30, 2013, 417 Posts, 1255 Comments