Photo of the month 

November 2003 

WHITETAIL DEER - M022

(Odocoileus virginianus)

Oakland County, Michigan, USA - October

4/500mm – ISO 400

Digital Capture 

[1]

Always be ready! This is a good hint, which you can find in several nature photography books. I try to stick to that rule as much as possible.

After a hard week at work, I went to my favorite Whitetail spot on a very cloudy Friday afternoon just to watch the beautiful animals without any real photographic ambition.

In the first place I just put the photo bag on the rear seat, but immediately the "be-ready-rule" hammered in my head: "what would happen if I had a chance for a good shot?" Setting up the tripod in the car with a deer close to the road is an almost hopeless operation: once you're done, you can just take a photograph of the landscape...without the deer!

So I decided to setup the tripod in the car before arriving at destination (pls read Arthur Morris' Book (see links) or email me if you're interested to know how to setup a tripod in the car and obtain a rock-solid support).

Once I arrived at my deer spot I saw one young buck in the woods carefully heading to an open area with some nice yellow trees in the background.

I just had to slow down a little bit, turn off the engine, put the 500mm on the tripod head, focus....click!