On a cold and overcast morning, I walked through the marsh today, heading toward a little pond area where I was hoping to see migrating ducks and geese. As I arrived at that area, I realized there was a deer in the distance near the far side of the water’s edge. I didn’t have time to make many adjustments and got off only two shots. This is the better of the two, and I like the pose of the deer, as she back at me before taking off. To give you an idea of the limited light, this was shot at ISO400, f5.6, and 1/30 second. I was at the far end of my 55-250mm zoom lens (and still had to crop quite a bit).
Early morning deer
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
The best kind of encounters…the surprise ones.
That’s probably true about many aspects of our lives, Sue, serendipitous moments when the unexpected happens.
Wish deer were a bit more cooperative. They usually see me before I see them.
I think there is a lot of luck involved when it come to photographing them. Maybe if I studied them more, I could figure out where the good spots are to find them, but deer are not high on my list of subjects to photographs. I saw anotherdeer later in the day at a lot closer range and will eventually post some photos of it
Deer can be more predictable during the rut. My guys are hunters. I’ve wondered if you wear at least a camo jacket/shirt when you’re taking pictures. I have a lot of camo and a pair of olive green wool pants. Camo helps a lot. The most important is if I’m in tune with the experience or not. One time I was sitting on the ground drawing a fern. I heard movement. A coyote came trotting down, got about 6 feet from me, saw me, turned left and kept on trotting.
Seeing a deer in the forest is always a special event for me.
I occasionally see deer in my suburban townhouse b, but somehow it’s just not as special as seeing one in what passes for “the wild” here in Northern Virginia..