Many Pennsylvania nature photographers have commented that fall
colors have not been as spectacular this year as usual and I have found
that to be true here in the south-central portion of the state as well.
With that being said I did capture a decent fall scene last Thursday.
Wanting to travel light, I carried only the Panasonic GH3 and tripod
with the 14-140mm Lumix lens mounted. I also carried the 100-300mm
Lumix in case I encountered wildlife.
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| Fall Colors: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 14-140mm@17mm- ISO 200-1/100sec. f 11.0 |
It
seems that the GH3 does quite well as a still camera at the lower ISO
settings and it is very easy to carry, but with that being said I still
like to use the Canons for most of my still photography.
I
have seen quite a bit of wildlife as well in the past few weeks. One
of the most memorable occasions was when I was watching a distant flock
of gobblers in a portion of a meadow that was dry enough for the farmer
to mow this summer. Since the fall rains it is now a wetlands and some
of the gobblers were drinking from the pools of water among the grass.
The image is severely cropped to give a more dramatic composition.
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| Gobbler Drinking: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 400-1/250sec. f 8.0 |
The
whitetail deer rut was early last year and I had seen a lot of bucks
chasing does by the middle of October, but things have really been slow
this year and there has been little signs of the rut until lately. I
have noticed that in the last few days the young bucks that are still
traveling with the family groups are showing rutting behavior. It is
amusing to watch these little fellows acting aggressive.
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| Yearling Buck Performs lip-curl: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 400-1/320sec. f 4.5 |
On October 25th I saw the first buck chasing a doe. I
did film the chasing with the Panasonic, but the stills I got with the
5D MK III and the 600mm were only portrait shots. This was a buck I had
not seen before and is either a larger than usual (for this area)
yearling or is a small 2 year old.
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| 6 Point Buck Pauses From Chasing Doe: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 3200-1/200sec. f 4.0 |
The light level was low enough that it was good to
have the MK III's excellent high ISO capability. I was hidden behind a
hay bale, but the buck still caught the movement as I switched from the
video camera to the still camera. He soon lost interest in me and began
chasing the doe again.
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| 6 Point Buck: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 3200-1/160sec. f 4.0 |
He evidently got the leaves in his right
antler from horning the ground, which is something I would liked to have
seen and recorded.
I enjoy photographing almost any
species I can find, but I have been fascinated with the whitetail deer
since a young age and they are my favorite species to film and
photograph. Each year I especially look forward to filming the
excitement of the fall rut when bucks that are ordinarily shy and hard
to see are suddenly everywhere running about after the does. It will be
interesting to see what buck sightings the next few weeks bring.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
