White Tailed Deer, Pennsylvania, USA
January 2025
Nikon D850
f/6.3
1/3200 sec
600mm
ISO 8000
I take regular walks in a park local to my home and, sometimes, carry my camera. Though densely wooded, it is a small park surrounded by suburban neighborhoods, so hunting is prohibited. Consequently, the resident white tailed deer herd is wary of humans but not especially fearful. Ordinarily, I don’t bother photographing the deer. There isn’t much challenge framing a deer standing 30 feet away and staring at you. I focus on song birds. But with this group packed so closely together, I had the thought to line up the ears and moved around until I had it. The trick was to make enough of a commotion to keep them looking at me but not enough to scare them off.
Processing was simple: global adjustments to tone, contrast, sharpness, and noise.