Deer

One of the largest and most common wild mammals in southwest Ohio. The white tailed deer is a common resident of woodlands and forests. Being able to capture them up close is a challenge as they have excellent hearing and fairly solid eyesight. While I typically go out on a shoot with birds in mind, I will usually end up finding deer one way or another as a nice surprise. Keep your peeled for a yarding of these animals in the woodlands, open fields or anywhere!

White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Creekside Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio "Live bold, without fear. This is life amongst the deer." - Giovannie de Sadeleer A lone deer carefully crept towards me as I stood frozen. There is something stunning about this large hulking mammals. Some of them can be so skittish and shy of humans that they will retreat at the first sight. Others are completely comfortable being near humans and won't even bat an eye. I attribute this instinct or behavior to hunting season. The state mammal for Ohio, white tailed deer have a rutting season where they grow antlers only to have them fall off. To lay down their scent in areas, they will rub the antlers against tree bark, leaving scratched portions visible for us to see. Some may see these beautiful mammals as hunting food, as roadkill to dodge at night, or eating our birdseed and plants. I simply see them as another creature with its' own complex set of challenges with living on this planet. We aren't too far different in that regard. © 2017 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Creekside Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio "Going to the woods is going home." - John Muir Life can throw many surprises your way. In the early days for me, I was cycling along the bike path with a small camera bag. This moment was pure happenstance, I was there to ride my bike and not to take photos. I just happened to have the bag with me "just in case." As you can tell, I am glad I did. For the ride, I was along a mile corridor bordering the Creekside Reserve. I stop to my amazement that there is at least eight to ten of them grouped together by the treeline. Easily the most I've seen in a single space. I couldn't say I was surprised as this was taken at dusk when they come out to eat. Almost like a horror movie, one by one more deer came out from the wooded canopy. By my counts there were about fifteen total deer all feeding and looking at what I was doing. Standing and shaking from excitement. These two in particular seemed awfully curious to slowly walk up towards me. Armed with a 75-300mm zoom, I zoomed in at 120mm, using an f-stop of 6.3 to distance these two away from the background more as a portrait. Then with a shutter speed of 1/200 second handheld, and ISO 800 to keep up with the darkening skies. As you can see, 120mm isn't that far. They got scary close to me as I stood frozen except for my quick fingers adjusting buttons and dials. Another third deer seemed rather perturbed and kept pouncing and hissing off to the side. After over half an hour encounter, the herd passively retreated back into the woods. This is perhaps my favorite moment I've shared with these beautiful mammals. © 2017 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Creekside Reserve, Beavercreek, Ohio "I don't have to take a trip around the world or be on a yacht in the Mediterranean to have happiness. I can find it in the little things, like looking out into my backyard and seeing deer in the fields." - Queen Latifah Once again, another very early image in my portfolio. Creekside Reserve practically feels like my backyard and one of my most visited places, especially when starting out. A late evening brought forth some deer from the woodlands and riparian habitat. Their well camoflauged hair caught me off guard as they jump out in the middle of the trail a few feet ahead of me. I am amazed how I wasn't ill-equipped for the job here. I had the perfect sized zoom lens to reach in close. Physically I stood there motionless, partly from the shock of them scaring me and perhaps to raise the camera slowly. I could tell pretty quickly the larger one on the right was a male and the left one perhaps a doe or female. The right side deer seemed undeterred by my presence as they stood out in the open. A moment lasting a total ten seconds. This image was a split second before they lept out to the right side of the trail from here. Looking from their spot of escape afterwards, and they were long gone. Such is the elusive life of the deer. © 2016 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Glen Helen Nature Preserve, Yellow Springs, Ohio "Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will." - Theodore Roosevelt Seeing eye to eye, these beautiful mammals look even more impressive up close. A long telephoto zoom lens, some luck and moving your feet will help in achieving shots like this. Although this wasn't my first deer photo; I took dozens and dozens in years past before this moment became 'the one.' The single encounter that makes every previous photo pale in comparison. The lighting, the composition, the tight framing, the eye contact, just about everything. Shooting on a tripod low to the ground allowed for this more intimate perspective. 1/160 of a second was just fast enough to capture an eye blink if it were to occur. An aperture f/6.3 allowed enough focus on the eyes without blurring out the rest of the face too much, yet dropping out the background. ISO 1000 is a bit too high for my tastes, however was much needed for the dark woodland surrounding us, and the noise was negilible. Another wonderful moment from being out in the field. © 2019 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Glen Helen Nature Preserve, Yellow Springs, Ohio "Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment." - R. Buckminster Fuller On the surface, a rather humorous shot I took of a deer very close up to me. It may seem they do this to be funny or mock the photographer, however this is an important behavioral characteristic to them. White tailed deer will lick their noses in order to keep it moist, improving their sense of smell. A square crop was a different approach to this image. The original edit had the deer head to the far right with negative space on the left. I wanted a different cropping with the mammalian subject practically centered as seen here. Overcast skies as always is diffused and helped make the exposure all the better. Overall a nice behavioral photo for my portfolio of Ohio's state mammal. © 2019 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Glen Helen Nature Preserve, Yellow Springs, Ohio "I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.” - Ellen DeGeneres Caught in the act of grooming. This preening deer made for a captivating subject choice as it engages in this everyday activity. While not the most action-packed scene I've seen of these ungulates, I like and almost prefer to share a look into what their lives are like. From this angle, the head turned around made for an interesting composition, and at 600mm I was close enough to crop in for a headshot. Mammal headshots; hunting without killing. Less than ten feet off the side of the trail, I am always enamored when a wildlife subject is cooperative. To me it feels as if I am entering their world for a few minutes (or an hour or two.) The ethics come into play here, the deer was never under distress by my unexpected early morning prescence. I stood completely still when it stared at me, and then carefully moved around when it was foraging or preening as seen here. Treat them as well as you will anyone else. © 2019 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.

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