Red Deer Top Ten
I recently did a podcast with Wildmanrouse for his Wildbunch Community on my top ten Red Deer rut images, it was really difficult to choose my favourite ten, I knew a few that would be in there but not all ten.
I really enjoyed choosing them and it’s something I’m going to do more of, I found images I had forgotten about or didn’t notice when I first edited the pictures. I have a press photography background which is all about fast turnaround from a job, a habit I still have but rarely go back into the folder again unless its to re-edit an image. There’s no good reason to turn photos around quickly for my wildlife imagery but some habits are hard to break.
So below are my Red Deer top ten in reverse order, this is slightly different to the order we did on the blog, Wildmanrouse put my images in the order he thought they should be, I agree mostly but I love a subtle fine art style image so it moves higher.
Number 10 - A magnificent stag bellowing shot straight on to the camera, I was looking for some symmetry to the head and wanted the focus to be the mouth area. I’ve got full width antler shots and tighter crops too but wanted this one to be all about the face.
Number 9 - The rut usually starts with the younger bucks warming up by clashing with each other, this youngster was shot at sunrise backlit to get some rim lighting around the still velvety antlers. The velvet coats the antlers to protect them while they grow during the year, beneath the fuzz are many blood vessels that help the new antlers to harden up.
Number 8 - Another few backlit youngsters with the sun rising behind.
Number 7 - This was a magical morning for atmosphere, I found these two stags in a wooded area and watched them parallel walking to size each other up. I was hoping they would fight and move into the pool of light behind but they didn’t do anything after a bit of walking perhaps because neither had any hinds with them so there was nothing to fight over.
Number 6 - This image is all about the weather, we don’t get snow very often in the UK anymore so it helps to have a go to place to make the most of it, the Red Deer are one of my go to areas. I went tight on the head of this stag to show the frost on the antlers and to show him feeding on the tree buds.
Number 5 - Another atmospheric shot taken in my favourite valley area, the sun rises down the valley and gives me my most atmospheric images. These two stags were tussling against each other, not quite the full on rutting that will happen as autumn gets underway. I shot this vertical to use the trees to frame the stags.
Number 4 - I’m always looking for something different and noticed the highlights on the frames that protect the trees so I framed up with them close to the lens to get some interesting bokeh orbs. I love the fire like steam from the stags breath in this shot.
Number 3 - I just love the depth in this image, the layers of the rolling hills behind the stag. I followed the stag as it made its way from right to left waiting for it to walk into position with the sun behind.
Number 2 - This was number 3 in the podcast but I’ve pushed it up to 2 as I love minimalist shots with very subtle detail, this is probably the only deer shot I would print out and put on my wall.
Number 1 - This shot says power to me, the stag is pumped up with testosterone, steaming from the breath and urine on the ground, the leg position is all about power too. It makes me think of a big bull in a spanish bullfighting arena, not something I have seen but can imagine they would look like this
So that’s my top ten Red Deer images to date, its funny choosing images that you enjoy, sometimes it’s the backstory to how you captured them that makes them more memorable to yourself rather than them being the strongest photographically but surely that is what photography was intended for, to record a memory rather than create art.
I’m not sure what I will do for my next top ten - decisions, decisions!