The start of the deer photography

Last weekend was the start of this seasons deer photography for me. I haven’t really delved into deer photography before so this was a start for me. The reason is that I next weekend will travel to Hungary for a deer photography workshop in Gemenc Forest, a part of Danube-Drava National Park. Gemenc is the only remaining tidal area of the Danube in Hungary. It is also a place I have been interested in visiting for some time.

In Hungary we will both work in Gemenc and at a deer farm. I am not 100% sure what to expect as I haven’t been there before. To my knowledge we will get good opportunities with primarily Red deer and Wild boar. Fallow deer might also appear, I primarily think they can be found at the deer farm.

Deer photography in Sweden at the end of August is normally prime time for the Red deer. It is their rutting season, usually starting in the middle of August ending a month later. During that time a Red deer stag might lose as much as 20% of its weight.

Deer Photography – the mission

My goal with the weekend was to check out a good deer habitat not far from Nossebro. I have known about this place for a some time and have travelled thorough it on many occasions, always seeing deer. Still, I haven’t invested the time and energy to explore the area. But, now was the right time I felt.

My aim with the days prior to the deer photography workshop in Hungary was to hone my skill on how to approach them. It would hopefully give me a better understanding about what can be done in Hungary. It would also give me a foundation to use when I get back home from Hungary, as the aim is to continue with deer photography. I also might try to follow the rutting season of the fallow deer as that one starts in the middle of October.

Checking the area

I saw Fallow deer at least six times when I drove through the area on my way to Nossebro this Friday. It was mainly a recon trip for me, but I also found an opportunity I couldn’t pass. I needed to see if I could approach Fallow deer stags without disturbing them. They where lying out in the open, around 20 altogether. I needed to give it a try.

I used the woods to approach them from cover. I felt it was easy to get close even if the photo opportunity wasn’t the best. After some time, something else caught my eyes to the right. I was the backs of a group of animals I hadn’t seen before. My first thought was wild boar as they are plentiful there. I soon understood that wasn’t the case as one of them raised its head.

It was a group of Mouflon. Actually the first group of mouflon I have seen in the wild, six or seven individuals in total. Of course I switched attention from the Fallow deer to the Mouflon. This surely wasn’t an opportunity that I could miss. For five minutes they grazed in front of me giving me time to capture some decent photos even if the action wasn’t the best.

Deer Photography – a second time

The meeting with the mouflons triggered me to go back next evening. This time Maria joined me.

We managed to approach a group of grazing Fallow deer resulting in a couple of nice photos. I even tried to find Red deers without any luck.

Next time will hopefully be different as I now know where to search for them as I have spoken to an old friend that lives in the area. He told me about the different areas where you normally find Red deer in the area. So guess where I will be heading next time.

Until then please enjoy the photo gallery from the weekend.