White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Recently, I took some photographs around my house of some deer passing through. This is the type of photography I would like to do most and improve upon, given the time. Several key points to photographing wildlife such as deer include patience, limiting your movement, limiting your noise, limiting your smell (think about wind direction), and patience once again.

In considering your camera setup, if you have a DSLR, find a lens that has a pretty long focal length. In most of these, I was out about 300 mm. This is necessary due   to the fact that these creatures will high tail it away if they see you or get spooked. I also used the widest aperture setting available (f/5.6) and needed a fast shutter  speed to eliminate motion blur due to the long focal length. To achieve such a shutter speed on a cloudy day in the woods, I had to use a higher ISO of 400, 800, and mostly 1600. This isn’t a problem if your camera limits the electrical noise at such a high ISO.  

These White-tailed Deer are native to the  Americas and are plentiful here in Georgia. They are generalists and able to adapt to a wide range of habitats. Their reddish-brown coat turns grey-brown into the fall and winter. These deer are ruminants, meaning they have four chambered stomachs (like cows.) The bucks (males) usually weigh a bit more than the does (females) and average at around three feet tall at the shoulders. Bucks only have antlers which are grown each year in late spring and shed in early winter. An older deer is characterized by a longer snout and a greyer coat. Deer communicate using sounds such as a bleat with does and a grunt (aggression) with bucks. All deer are capable of snorting, which signals danger. White-tailed deer also use their tails to signal danger. Deer have many scent producing glands which are used to mark territory. Other sign posts include scrapes (digging into bare earth; urination may be included) and rubs (rubbing tree with antlers, removing bark and polishing antlers. )