White-tailed Deer Buck Watching the Sunset
I am fortunate to live 2 hours east of Shenandoah National Park. This park, located in western Virginia, is a long and skinny park stretching some 100 miles along Skyline Drive, later becoming the Blue Ridge Parkway. Within Shenandoah National Park there are countless opportunities for nature photography ranging from mountain and forest scenics to birds to mammals to flowers. On this late summer day, I was visiting the Big Meadows region near milepost 50 in search of White-tailed Deer Bucks. The deer found in Shenandoah National Park and particularly Big Meadows are quite tame. I believe that they may have been fed by humans in the past but certainly being protected from hunting and being exposed to many tourists a day has led to their lack of fear. Regardless of the reason, Shenandoah National Park is one of the prime locations on the east coast to photograph White-tailed Deer. I spotted this magnificent 11 point buck late in the evening about a half an hour before sunset. I followed him around the meadows and got many portraits and full body shots of him in nice warm evening light. However, as the sun was getting close to setting, I decided to try something different and went around behind him to place him between myself and the sun. Being so tame I had a lot of problems trying to photograph him with his head up since he was comfortable having his head down eating grass instead of being alert to any humans nearby. Luckily, with just minutes to spare, he lifted his head for several seconds and I was able to fire off 3 shots, this being one of them. As soon as I saw the image on the back LCD of my camera I knew that I had something special. Some of important qualities of this shot are the warm colors of the background combined with the blues of the haze in the distant blue ridge mountains, the position of the deer, and the fact that the sun is in the frame and it appears that he is enjoying the view one last time before nightfall. My favorite quality of the shot however is the rim lighting around his antlers. Without his velvet still on, the antlers would simply be silhouettes. To this day, this photograph remains one of my favorite White-tailed deer photographs and without a doubt one of my favorite photographs of mine period.
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Judd Patterson on 11 Dec 2007 at 9:12 pm #
This has always struck me as a powerful photograph. The rim-lighting is amazing and you nailed the exposure on this tricky shot (would have been easy to blow out the setting sun on this shot). Great job Chris and one day maybe I can join you in Shenandoah.
Chris Kayler on 11 Dec 2007 at 9:14 pm #
Thanks Judd, I am glad you like it. Let me know whenever you’re in the area.
Thomas Folke Andersen on 04 Feb 2008 at 5:16 am #
Hi Chris, I agree the rim lighthing makes this a very special and truly beautiful wildlife shot!
P.S. Have always enjoyed ‘hearing’ the story behind an image, so great feature.
Vito on 29 Oct 2008 at 6:59 pm #
Hey Chris,
I’m sure I’ve told you before that I like this photo, but in seeing it again, I’ve come to realize the rarity of an opportunity like this. This would’ve been awesome without the sun in the photo, but with the sun there, it is nothing short of spectacular. Congratulations on great timing and execution!
Vito