Story Behind The Lens: "The Buck"
How a Chance Encounter with Two Majestic Bucks Led to a Portfolio-Worthy Shot
On December 18th, 2024, around 4:00 pm, I arrived at a Provincial Park. The temperature hovered at -1°C, with overcast skies; cold, but comfortable. I got out of my car and went over to the passenger side where I keep my camera. You never know what you might see, and I like to have it handy. I retrieved it from my backpack, removed the lens cap, and then snapped the lens hood on. I use a Fujifilm X-T2, which has dials for shutter speed and ISO on the top. I rotated the ISO dial to “A” for AUTO, then set my shutter speed to 1/500th of a second. This is because I’m shooting handheld, and the rule of thumb for telephoto lenses is to have your shutter speed at least at your focal length, which for me is 150-600mm. So I find setting it to 1/500th gives me the wiggle room to dial it in.
I locked up the car and began heading into the park. As I did, I weighed my options: Do I go right or left today?
Going left offered more wide-open fields, usually frequented by birds of prey. But going right meant a brief walk through an open field which enters into the forest, where over the summer, I had heard Great Horned Owls duetting. Fortunately for me, I picked right, both figuratively and literally.
I had been hiking for about twenty minutes, making my way past a pasture and across the field. As I came to the end of the row of trees that divided the area, I looked to my left. What I saw almost seemed unbelievable.
Two beautiful bucks were standing at the edge of the field, which had been reclaimed by various tall grasses and plants. The younger one had about six tines on its antlers, while the older, more majestic buck had nine. One of the tines on the older buck’s antlers was broken, making it atypical.
I froze in place, stunned that I had essentially bumped into these two creatures, and equally not wanting them to fear me and flee. Both bucks briefly stared right at me but soon returned to their grazing. I breathed a sigh of relief and slowly brought up my camera. Over the past year or so since starting wildlife photography, one of the biggest mistakes I learned I could make was moving too quickly with the camera. Too quickly, and my subject will flee.
I slowly brought up my lens, focusing first on the nine-point buck. I took a few shots but realized I was quite underexposed. I didn’t have a lot of light to work with, given the time of year and how late it was in the day. I also hadn’t brought a tripod with me, which limited my options. I eventually lay on the ground, using the dirt as my tripod. I was able to bring my shutter speed down and get a much better image as a result.
I snapped a few photos of the nine-point buck before switching to the six-point. Both continued to graze and move about, unbothered by me. Unless, of course, my camera strap clicked against another hard surface. Then, I briefly became the focus of their attention. I eventually switched to video, briefly shooting both on my Fujifilm X-T2 and phone.
After roughly thirty minutes, it seemed like the two bucks were ready to move on, as they began heading for the tree line. I slowly followed behind them, keeping my distance but snapping photos as I went. It was then that I spotted several does hidden in the tall vegetation. Soon, they too followed with the bucks, heading back into the tree line.
I continued with my hike. As I started heading back to my car, I encountered another smaller herd of does right along the path I was walking on. It was far too late and thus too dark for me to take any usable photos with my Fujifilm camera, but my phone worked perfectly to get a few record shots.
I was beaming by the time I got back to my car, satisfied with the shots I had taken. Just looking at the pictures on the back of my camera, I knew these would be portfolio-worthy.
Until the next post!
-Greg
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