No Privacy Even In The Woods; A Bit Of Friday Whimsy With My Fujifilm X-T2!

X-T2, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens @ 312mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/5.2; ISO 1250 (click to enlarge)
I was a bit surprised this doe would stop, squat and urinate out in the open at about 11 a.m.  She must have felt safe.

Yesterday I was out wandering with my camera and decided to drive through the Yorktown Battlefield which is part of the Colonial National Historical Park.  Yorktown is the site of the last battle of the American Revolutionary War ending in 1782.  Often times I drive through the battlefield just because it is a beautiful place to be.  I've made many interesting images in and around the battlefield of nature and animals.

I spotted this white tailed doe eating in the deep grass (see below), stopped my vehicle, rolled down the window and made a couple of images.  Under the canopy of large, thick deciduous trees I could see there was a lot of variation in light intensity in the general area so I set my ISO on auto.  Overall, the light was pretty low under those trees so I knew that my ISOs would be relatively high in order to keep my shutter speeds up.

She started walking and I followed her with the camera making the occasional image as she walked, stopped and grazed, walked again, etc.  As she moved parallel to the roadway, I moved my vehicle forward as well.  She didn't seem to be frightened.  All of a sudden she squatted and started to urinate so I snapped the top image.  I don't think I have ever seen a deer urinate in the daytime out in the open.  She must have felt very safe.

X-T2, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens @ 400mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/11; ISO 2500 (click to enlarge)
I first spotted this doe in the tall grass only when she raised her head to check her surroundings.

Later, I drove from Yorktown to Jamestown on the Colonial Parkway, a very pleasant drive of about 17 miles. To my delight I spotted several deer along the way.  The two images below were made on the parkway near historic Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

X-T2, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens @ 400mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 1000 (click to enlarge)
This fawn was standing alone and allowed me to make a few photos, then quickly ran to mom at
which time mom became interested in what I was doing as well.

X-T2, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens @ 400mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/8; ISO 1600 (click to enlarge)
The doe's mouth is open and she was "barking" at me!

All images were made with my X-T2, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens handheld while sitting in my vehicle with my seatbelt still strapping me in, sometimes turning more than 90 degrees to shoot through the passenger's rear window.  If I would have exited my vehicle at any time, the deer would have run away.  

All in all, it was a beautiful end of summer day and I was able to see some beautiful creatures and make a few interesting images.

Lesson to be learned: You make what images you can given any particular circumstance.  I would have liked to get out of my vehicle, set up my tripod but if I had, there would have been no deer to photograph.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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