Deer, Oh Dear...

I'm going to take a break from the series of posts I've been doing on Vietnam recently to show you some work from closer to home; Richmond in south west London to be precise. Those of you that follow me on Twitter will know that I spent most of last Sunday tramping around hunting for deer. I had set off early as it takes a good 90 minutes to get there from my home in the east of the city. On Saturday the weather had been glorious, sunny blue skies and unseasonably warm, but Sunday was a different proposition entirely. What used to be known as a "pea souper" had set in.

My first glimpse of the deer

Visibility was approximately 50 metres, the temperature had plummeted and along with it so had my chances of improving on my collection of deer photos. I had been to Richmond Park once before, again, with the sole purpose of snapping one of 650 or so Red and Fallow deer that roam free in the 2,500 acre park. I had had some moderate success that time; I had found a herd of 80 head or so but wasn't able to get very close without making the deer skittish and so had to settle for hanging back and taking some longer range shots. This time, I wanted to try and get closer for some more intimate shots of these beautiful animals. Unfortunately, the thick fog meant that even if I got within 20 yards I was going to struggle to get a clear shot.

All was not lost though, these dull, overcast conditions are actually ideal for close up work and the fine detailing that that can reveal. They also lend themselves to getting some good shots of the woodland in the area and also the section of the Thames that I walk along to get to the park. I'm going to put the river and woodland shots in a future post but I'll show you a couple of other ones as I rather like them. All the leaves and grass in the area were catching the mist and forming little droplets that highlighted the fragility of the structures. Cobwebs in particular stood out, you could spot them from several yards away. After taking a few of these sorts of photos I noticed that my beard was catching the dew in the same way: I decided that this needn't be documented.

I should have found a more intact cobweb but I was keen to press on and find the deer

Even with 650 deer at hand that meant that there was only one per four acres of park on average which, with the weather the way it was, meant that there was no guarantee of striking lucky. My first sighting came after more than an hour of hunting but I had heard them long before I saw them. The great roaring of dominant bulls carries a long way even through the mist. Frustratingly, the weather made it more difficult to actually pin point where the noise was coming from as it was rapidly muffled. Not long before I finally found them I started to here the clash of antlers, now this got me really excited; the main reason I had came was to get some photos of rutting behaviour. Eventually I saw what I had come for; 80 yards away I saw a small group of hinds and, at this time of year, there was unlikely to be a group of females without a stag nearby. And so it came to pass. This actually turned out to be a pretty big group with three or four mature stags, I don't know exactly how many were there as the far side was shrouded in mist but there were at least 50 or more.

The hinds kept their distance

There was no way I was going to sneak up on them unnoticed so I went for the slow-and-steady technique and over the course of a further 90 minutes or so I slowly worked my way towards them; sometimes moving forwards, sometimes taking a few steps away again and always trying to pre-empt the direction the herd was moving in. I would also randomly fire off my camera even when there was nothing in particular to see to get them used to the sound of it; I now have quite the portfolio of my right foot. Most of the hinds had retreated but several stags had stood their ground to fight each other and I used this to my advantage. As they lowered their heads and clashed I edged closer until I was about 20 yards away. On a clear day this would have given me the chance to get some crystal clear shots, today it got me some more ethereal looking ones with the fog providing a plain backdrop. Importantly, though, I got the shots I had wanted of stags clashing.

These two stags appeared to be more junior and merely fighting for the practice. There was a larger stag, below, who remained unchallenged. Even though these deer were smaller and their antlers not as well developed they still made an awesome noise as they brought their heads together. There's something quite primal about the sound of lengths of bone being smashed against each other. They didn't appear to be injured at all, as can apparently happen when they really go at it. I've also learnt that a dominant stag that has control of a harem will normally not eat during the mating season as he's too busy fending off rivals and, well, mating. They can expect to lose 20% of their body weight during this period and if they haven't put on enough bulk before the season starts they can actually struggle to make it through at all. There are worse ways to go, though, I suppose.

Below I have the best photo I managed to get of the dominant bull in this group, a beautiful creature. It is in no way surprising that in Britain they have been associated with royalty and majesty for over 1,000 years. You'll notice that I have the same photo again underneath that but more crappy looking. This is just to show how foggy it really was last Sunday. I had got pretty close by now as they were far more interested in each other than they were in me but even at 30 feet it was damned murky so all my photos ended up looking rather flat and dull. That being the case I worked them over a bit in Photoshop with what's known as a 'Levels' adjustment to liven them up a bit and tease out some of the detail. I'm mainly telling you this because, as a general rule, I don't like to mess about with my photos if I can help it (not just for artistic reasons but because it's tedious in the extreme to do) and also as a continuation of my policy of telling you when I have altered photos so that you know what is real and what has been fiddled. The top most photo in this post of the group of hinds is unaltered, the others have been adjusted.

In all I spent about 5 hours following these deer around and I had a great time doing it. Even though it takes several hours of travelling I think I'm going to have to get down to Richmond more often, these are amazing animals and it's genuinely exciting spending time near them. Stalking these wild creatures is probably the closest we can get in this country to going on safari, I certainly got that same sense of excitement. I'd like to get some pictures of them in the snow this winter, that'll depend on the trains being able to cope with the weather, of course.