Not that he is that big for a Mule Deer(they always look bigger from behind), but I'd a flung an arrow at him during the season. I only have a 30 day mule deer season and am limited in the amount of acreage that I can hunt them. But its almost as fun as photographing them. I said ALMOST. I included a few other pictures as well.
Beautiful pics, once again Jack... Remind, me; I'm not sure if I've seen you say ... what's your camera setup again?
Thanks. I shoot a Nikon D300. My primary lens for wildlife is a zoom 70-200mm f2.8. When enough light exists, such as when I took these pictures, I use a 2x teleconverter on the lens which basically makes it a 400mm lens and a 5.6 aperture. Couple this with the fact that you get a 1.5 times magnification factor with the Nikon D300, this set up is equivalent to a 600mm lens.
Aah... I miss a 2.8 F stop telephoto ... Got to shoot one for years when I was shooting my own sports stuff as sports editor and later when I took over as editor at another paper... Now that I'm not footing the bill on everything and no longer using the paper's stuff I'm waiting to get back into that nice a lens again.
awesome photos. I love Mule deer. I shot my second one ever this year in full velvet. Not bad for a guy from the east coast. I love going to the west to hunt them. Please post more pics of any wildlife. Once again thanks for sharing.
As you know, quality camera lens can be quite expensive. But I have more than justified the costs (at least in my mind) because of the amount of sports pictures I have taken as my son has grown up, not only for ourselves but for his teammates as well. The same set up I use for wildlife works well for baseball, football, soccer, basketball and skiing/snowboarding. In order to get quality pictures, the 2.8 aperture setting is almost a must for basketball and night games. I have received a lot of self satisfaction and enjoyment in some of my wildlife shots,but none of them come close to comparison in the satisfaction received with the sports shots. Not knocking those who video (I know it has its place), but how often do you really watch them as opposed to "still photography" that I look at everyday on the walls of my home and office. Just a FWIW as I know you have young children which you are very involved with.
LOVE the pics.. beautiful. I was hoping to get a teleconverter for my setup this year, but the shutter on my camera is no longer, so I had to invest in an entire new body
Jack, First time I've read someone that had the same thought process that I hold... I've got a Nikon D60 that I purchased for the EXACT same reasons, and bought a 200 mm zoom to go along with it (you may have seen some of the pics I've captured with it in my trapping threads in the off-season forum)... Couldn't agree more whole-heartedly. In fact, I'm re-doing a wall in the lower level of our house a bit, and I made 8x10 prints out of all our best trapping pics and I'll be covering a whole wall with them. I KNOW every visitor that we bring in will gravitate to that wall and spend a lot of time looking closely at all those photos.... I just don't have an F 2.8 yet. :D About the only time I've wished for a video recorder -- and I may still get one because of it -- is for Matthew's karate tournaments. But I want that not so much as to preserve the memories like most (though that would be a nice side-benefit) but for us to watch together to study strengths and weaknesses and to help him get even better.
Great pics as usual. That buck has some cool character splits in his left fork. Hopefully you'll get a shot at him next year with something other than a camera in your hand.
