Red Deer at home and abroad

Red Deer has been my photo goal for the last couple of weeks. I would say that I began my hunt for Red Deer in Sweden at the start of August, but it was first after I arrive home from Hungary that I found them.

I have also been to Denmark over a weekend and managed to see Red Deer there. The place I went to was the old royal hunting grounds in Copenhagen. There they still have Red Deer, but also Fallow Deer and Sika Deer. A good place to try your skill if you like Deer Photography.

I have now found a good spot for rutting deer at home. They are certainly not easy to approach. You need to be cautious as Red Deer are shy to say the least. I have tried to approach them in many different ways and my conclusions are as followed. You need to either use a hide or probably a ghillie suit to come near. Sadly the camouflage dress I have is not working as good as I had hoped. At least not for a lone Red Deer stag.

If the stag has some hinds around, then they have other things on their minds. That makes them easier to approach even if you probably won’t get really close without a hide. I will make a couple of more tries soon and then use my bag hide. I hope that will make the stag more relaxed and easier to photo.

Being lucky

Sometimes one also get lucky with other species like I was with a Red Fox. The deers had been spooked by a car, but I decided to stay and search the area. During this search I saw a Red Fox hunting in the field. To my surprise it was easily approachable and I ended up just inside the tree line while taking photo of the hunting fox. I really thought that the Red Fox saw me, but to my surprise it approached and came within a couple of meters. It was probably lured by the shutter sound. It didn’t run away and stayed close by even when it understood I was a human. I suppose it was a young Fox as an adult most probably hadn’t approached. It was also nice to see that my camouflage dress seems to work better with other species than the shy Red Deer.

I will use some more time to try to get the desired photos of fighting and rutting Red Deer before my trip to Africa.

Please enjoy the photos from the last two weeks.