The deer are coming earlier for dinner...

We have a few deer that visit us almost every day to feast on the corn and apples my wife puts out for them. I seldom get any photo opps since they usually come well after dark. The weather has been extremely hot and dry here lately, but I don't know if that's affecting their schedule and bringing them by earlier. I finally had a chance this week to get some photos in late evening light that aren't the best, but at least I got some.

All taken with the D2H, 24-120 VR, handheld -- tripod would have helped but likely spooked them even more -- realized after I took all the shots that I had forgotten to turn the VR on! Lost a lot of the shots to movement as a result. I hope they come back again before dark -- I'll be prepared with the 70-200 and have the VR on!!

These must be yearlings because they're still letting the young buck tag along:

1/30s f/5.6 at 120.0mm iso640

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Closer crop of the young buck

1/30s f/5.6 at 120.0mm iso640
View attachment 10487

And this is what they thought of me taking their photos -- note the raspberries I'm getting from the deer looking at me!

1/40s f/5.6 at 120.0mm iso640
View attachment 10488

Comments, critiques, suggestions are always welcome!

 

Yes, they were very wary of me standing about 20 feet away behind the fence, so they kept looking at me - and posing. They do look delicate -- very thin coat for the hot Texas weather.

 

Thanks, Gale! Yes, I hate it when I have those senior moments and forget the VR! :x :x

I did try fill flash on a couple of shots which I haven't processed yet -- I'll take a look at them to see how they turned out. Problem with fill flash was it spooked them and made them run toward the woods.   I wish they would let me use it because the light was limited.

 

Hi, Virginia! These are your basic White-Tailed Deer. I assume they have such fine, delicate coats because of the heat and humidity here in the south. Their fur doesn't get much thicker than this, even in the winter (not sure you should even call it "winter" here -- pretty mild temperatures).

 

Thanks, Dave! My wife goes through a 50lb bag of deer corn about every 10 days feeding the deer and the geese/ducks that are on the pond! Don't know why they're so skinny!