I live about a half-mile from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Given my proximity to the place, I spend more time there than is strictly warranted by my level of success. But the Arsenal was very good tonight. I found this mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) just as the sun was setting. In fact, though the deer was a fair ways away, I had to carefully position my car so I didn’t cast an shadow on the deer. More deer soon.
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Mule Deer with Large Antlers showing remnants of velvet. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
I photographed this large Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) buck in Rocky Mountain National Park last fall. Ordinarily I would have used a wider framing for this shot. However, I used a tight crop here to emphasize the size of the deer’s antlers. Note the remnants of the deer’s velvet on the antler at camera left. Be sure to click on the image for a larger version. Inching closer to being caught up . . . Captured this mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) image at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR last weekend. I really like the rim light and balanced composition in this one. It’s pretty sweet in color too – I may post the color image later this weekend. My dad and I made an overnight trip to Rocky Mountain National Park earlier this month to photograph the elk during the second or “false” rut. The park is wonderful in December. The crowds are gone, the snow is falling, and the bulls in the main bachelor herd spar almost constantly. In fact, we almost had too much snow — at times the morning snow was so heavy that it obscured the elk. (Click on the images for a larger view and a slideshow).
Though the snow made it a bit challenging to photograph the bulls fighting in Horseshoe Park, the snow made for some wonderful images of the cow and calf herd in Moraine park. There is something whimsical about a show-covered elk.
As an added bonus, we ran across this mulie. Unfortunately another rude photographer ran this guy off before I could get the perfect image, but I’m reasonably happy wit this one.
One last image of the elk fighting. Less of a sense of motion than the first image, but I like the eye contact. I was fortunate to spend last Sunday morning shooting at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR with Mark and Claudia Brown. We were hoping to find the huge mule deer buck I saw the week before. We couldn’t find him, but still came away with a couple of nice images. As is apparent from a couple of these photos, I was trying hard to make a nice deer “headshot” portrait with a clean background. In retrospect, though, I think I should have tried a little wider lens for the shoot. Nonetheless, I am pleased with these images. Getting a decent background for these deer is a perennial challenge. Mark and Claudia were nice enough to let me try their 7D’s during the trip. Wow — the viewfinder is gorgeous, and I could sure use the 18MP for my large prints. Very tempting, though Darwin Wiggett’s post about the 7D producing soft images gives me pause. I can’t quite decide whether to get a new 7D or a used 1DMIII. Here are a couple of additional images from the trip; click on the image for a larger version:
This is very large Mulie from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR. The deer rut is on, so these big guys are much easier to find than usual. I like the framing effect of the trees in this image. Now only if the deer had a slightly more regal pose . . . . As always, click on on the photo for a larger version |
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Copyright © 2012 Andrew Kelley Photography, Ltd. - All Rights Reserved |
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