Ahhh....

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 25, 2012199 views5 comments

To the local nature reserve at sunrise today but no sun. Just lots of clouds so had to crank up the ISO. In the week since my last visit, the rut has officially begun. Found this guy tending to a doe and he's been making buck perfume by urinating on his hind legs. He's a new guy who spent the summer somewhere else but came by because of all the does here. Didn't get a really good clear shot of him but did capture this interesting behavior that I see every once in a while. Using the antlers to scratch the back. Wish the antler doing the scratching had been on the side facing the camera, but you get the idea. Watched him do this a number of times and every time- out came his tongue. I hadn't seen that before. He does seem to be enjoying it though. This has been cropped to about 60% of the original and warmed up a bit. Light sharpening in PSE 10. Comments and critique welcomed.

Tech Info

Canon 60D with 70-200mm f/4L @ 200 with 1.4 TC = 280mm
1/13th at f/5.6 and IS0 1250
tripod

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by John Neukirch on October 25, 2012 at 7:36 PM

A neat capture. From a tech standpoint lots of softness everywhere but the shot is cool none the less. With the man made sign in the BG might belong in the Man & Nature forum.

Registered on July 9, 2012, 207 Posts, 1476 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 26, 2012 at 11:13 AM

Neat behavior shot! The tongue is almost a ghost image, maybe you could darken it just a bit? Also, I think if the sign is a concern you could crop this to a vertical and leave the sign out of the image. Wish we had an area like yours around here. Most of the deer in this area are wary of people. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on October 27, 2012 at 4:53 AM

You know, you were never going to get this movement sharp obviously, at 1/13s, but the result is this effect of movement of the tongue and exactly that makes it quite special. So good for you that you went for it, despite the poor light conditions.

Grtz, Ingrid.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on October 27, 2012 at 8:36 AM

Hi Peter,

I think going with a long exposure here was a good idea (tho' I suspect you had no other option!), but overall this one doesn't work as well for me as some of your other recent posts. I think the problem for me is this: without the supporting information (i.e., if you just look at the image in isolation) it's unclear what's going on here and - at least to me - there's not a lot of pure visual appeal here. After years of shooting animals scratching themselves, yawning, rubbing against trees and other behaviours, I've finally come to the conclusion that SOME behaviours just don't come across that well in still photos- and that they are better captured (by others and not me!) using video.

Cheers...looking forward to your next post...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on November 6, 2012 at 12:02 AM

Way late catching up to this, Peter, but I have to say this looks a lot like branch-licking behavior you would see at a scrape. Just wondering it there were any twigs above the buck?

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments