Sunday, June 17, 2012

More Whitetail Fawn Photos and Video

I have been photographing very little else than whitetail fawns for the past few weeks and so I will share some of the photos and video with you today. We begin with a short video clip of the newborn fawn featured in the last post. It was resting on the forest floor and I was filming it with the T3i with 24-105 lens attached. It stood up and started moving toward me and at that point I dropped from kneeling position into sitting and removed the camera from the tripod as I did so. It is hard to follow focus with a DSLR in video mode, but I kicked the IS in to get maximum stability. The Zacuto finder was mounted in the traditional position. I simply pressed it to my eye, looking directly through the Zacuto as one ordinarily would the eye level finder. This helped to stabilize the camera and the combination of the Zacuto and the sharp LCD of the T3i, made it possible to hit acceptable focus much of the time, which is not too bad, as a traditional camcorder is bad at hunting for focus under such a situation. This is the instance in which the fawn actually nuzzled my clothing.




The three photographs below were taken on the evening of June 7th, when a doe brought one of her fawns into the food plot for a good photo session. All of the photos were taken with the 5D MKIII and the 500mm F4 at ISO 400mm.

Young Fawn Pauses From Exploring The Meadow

Fawn Nursing 

Fawn Pauses From Nursing
Documenting the young wildlife as it explores the bright new world around it, is one of the most rewarding activities the outdoor photographer can engage in.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

9 comments:

Ruth Hiebert said...

Priceless pictures. Unfortunately the video is not viewable for some reason.

Willard said...

Thanks, Ruth. I did put a bit long fade to black at the beginning and if you are just getting a black screen, it should play if you let it go a bit. The fade is actually right for on a DVD, but with the buffering issues with online video, I shouldn't put as long of a fade at the beginning.

It works OK on my computer, but there can be some weird glitches with video, so I don't know what is going on.

If anyone else is having problems, or this doesn't solve your problem, Ruth please comment about it here--and I will redo the video--although I may not get it up until next weekend.

PaWingers said...

Holy Crap Willard, did you help deliver this little guy? That video was amazing. The stills from the 5D were very nice! Hope you're liking it.

Roan said...

Amazing video and those stills...wonderful!

Willard said...

Tom,

I just about helped deliver it. There was no chance to document it being born, but I think I actually did see it drop out of the mother as she stood up. Love the 5D--the best I have had yet.

imac said...

Love all 3 shots Willard, but the last is my fav one, real cute, bless.
Thanks for you visit too.
Hope all is well with you and family.

Unknown said...

What a wonderful experience===really nice set of images

Misty DawnS said...

So beautiful and precious!

Peggy said...

Awesome!!! Loved the video and envy your encounter! Amazing photos Willard! Thanks so much for all of your documentation!