Summertime Wildlife

For this shoot I wanted to get outdoors and see some of this years Deer herd that had been moving around the area. This was a great oppertunity for me to break out the Canon EF 75-300 f/4/5.6 III lens, and play around with the Canon EF85mm f/1.8 USM as well.

I brought fellow Photog Ralph Kuhnley along with me as it's always great to be outdoors with someone to laugh at my cheap humor.

We started off the walk with me loading the 50mm on the Canon XSi body as I wanted to try to get some shots of turtles just under the surface of the water. I had on my handy dandy circular polarizer hoping to cut down some glare on the water, and off we went. I didn't get crap for images, but after walking out on a bridge which went across the lake, I was able to set my body on the rail, and make an attempt at this make shift panorama.


I was done playing, and was ready to go find the Deer! The real reason we came. It was time to see which ones had been eating the good stuff. I slapped the 85mm and went for a walk. It took us about 15 minutes of cutting through various trails before we found them. I walked slowly up on a group of about 8 of them. They busted me, and scattered but this brave little fella wanted to be placed on the cover of a magazine!


I spent well over half an hour playing with shots attempting different focal points and just learning what the 85mm could and couldn't do. I really wanted to get in close, to see if I could get me an eyeball shot with my reflection in the eyeball. The deer were to skiddish, or just plain didn't like how bad I smelled! After I was done playing with the 85mm from a distance, it was time to get the Telephoto Zoom out and let the 75-300 get some work. Now this is a very cheap lens for what it can do. I strongly recommend leaving the AF off on this lens, and working the focus manually!


As I was able to slowly push the deer out of the dense woods, and into a shaded clearing, it gave me a great oppertunity to try some spot metering, and adjust accordingly.


I worked with the deer in the shade a little bit so I could get some shots with them in the green grass with that sun being blocked.


I ended up naming this deer "Coconuts" for obvious reasons.










I don't know why, but I always end up falling into atleast 1 B&W shot per shoot!


After having them in the shade, I began to put on a push as I wanted to get them out in the sun, and pull some of those great Oranges and Browns out of them.




It took me awhile, and some carefull planning, but finally I got the girls to come out and show off.








I had a wonderful time, and came out with a few decent images. Nothing is like being in nature, and surrounded by free roaming animals and being able to capture them in pixels!