So…That Just Happened

I was parked in my golf cart near birdhouse “R”, at the far southeast corner of the property. I was checking in on the status of the Eastern Bluebird pair that was feeding chicks in that house. Everything appeared to be good with the birds.

Then, I heard Bobwhite quail calling nearby. The Bobwhite spends most of its time on the ground and it is far more elusive than you might expect. I hear them calling nearly every time I go outside, even from the house. Still, I don’t see them very often. So, I will say I’m fortunate to have spotted a small group of the cuties crossing the road and coming closer to where I was sitting.

With my full attention on the little birds, my peripheral vision alerted that something big, really big, was coming down the road. It’s a road that, I would guess, 10-15 cars travel per day. We don’t live in the absolute middle-of-nowhere, but ours is a lesser used county road, to say the least.

I took my gaze from the view finder of my camera to the “real world” and saw a white-tailed deer doe. She was sauntering (that’s the best way I could describer her movement), in the late afternoon sunshine as if she took that jaunt quite regularly.

Of course, I wanted to get a few photos of her. I see deer quite often, but usually only after I have scared them up from a daytime place of cover. I don’t even try to film them. I’d only get a shot of their namesake white tail flashing as they ran off. Deer are crepuscular, as in they are active mostly during dawn and dusk. Dusk wasn’t due for a few hours.

Without alerting her to my position, which was about 35-40 feet from where she was crossing my line of sight, I lifted my camera and began to shoot. She was actually too close to fit into a single frame because I had extended my lens to capture the Bobwhites. I worried that making any additional movements would cause her to run off, so I tried my best to get one good picture without reaching to change the focal length.

Here are the fruits of my efforts. Unfortunately, there were items which obscured my success, like a couple of fence posts and the green, 5 gallon up-side-down bucket that we installed as a predator baffle on the post that supports birdhouse R. Still, I was able to get two clear shot, albeit her ears and feet were cut off in both of them.

I don’t even remember switching modes on the camera, but I also caught this little bit of video – with a funny comment at the end.

One of the reasons that I remain game about going out with my camera, is that I never know what I might see or experience – even though there is a limited number of species that exist on our fifty acres of ‘farm-gone-wild’ land. Unique events like the one with the deer, do help me hone my expertise as an amateur photographer – well, maybe a little. But, absolute full disclosure, becoming a great photographer isn’t actually very high on my list of reasons that I take hundreds of photos on any given day. I don’t want to work as hard as it requires to develop an expert status in that craft. This is a hobby. A good, strong line must be drawn between hobby and work else the joy of recreation is consumed with expectations, standards and, well, stress.

However, taking photos of wild flora and fauna does give me an incredible respect for those people who do hone their skills as professional photographers. I have a deep appreciation for what it truly takes to share our natural world with people who don’t get the opportunity to experience it first hand. Here’s to professional photographers that share their amazing, hard-earned, natural art with the world. And, I hope the photos of the doe and all her ticks and imperfections, can be enjoyed in the intention they are shared.