New Year- Photographs and Thoughts

I have been blogging since October of 2007 and I find it increasingly difficult to make a blog post.  It is not so hard if one puts up a few photographs with minimal commentary--at least if one is having good success with photographic opportunities.  This time of year can be especially difficult in the area where I live as rifle deer season puts the damper on whitetail buck photography.  The countryside is also drab looking when there is no snow on the ground.  I am conflicted about this as I do not like having to deal with snow, but I do like to see and photograph wildlife in it. We have had a bit of snow off and on and I photographed a mature gobbler one morning as he preened and basked in the morning sunlight at the edge of a meadow.

Mature Gobbler Preening: Canon 7D-Canon 600mm F4.0  L IS - ISO 200-1/500 sec. f 5.0

This was a was a welcome change from the usual bare ground, but the snow was gone within a few days.

Distant Whitetails: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm F4.0 L IS - ISO 400-1/1000 sec. f 5.0

It is good to see and photograph deer under any conditions, but photographing them in falling snow is especially rewarding.

Doe in Falling Snow: Canon 7D-Canon 70-200 mm F 2.8  L IS II - ISO 400-1/100 sec. f 4.0

I included an old manure spreader in the background of the photograph shown below to add to the atmosphere, but I am not sure if it is a plus or a minus composition wise.

A Snowy Day: Canon 7D-Canon 17-40mm F4.0  L@40mm - ISO 400-1/80 sec. f 7.1

It should be easier to get good wildlife photographs once the late flintlock & archery deer season is over and wildlife populations calm down a bit, which brings me to a point that I wish to address briefly.

While it is not difficult to make a post such as this one has been so far, it is difficult to write about controversial subjects and one can spend hours or parts of several days in writing a post about this type of subject matter. The problem is that I feel compelled to write about wildlife issues from the perspective of a wildlife photographer as it seems to me that much of the writing done about wildlife issues in the public media is from the perspective of the hunting community.  While it is true that at this point wildlife conservation programs are primarily funded by hunting license dollars, I  think that persons who are interested in wildlife for other reasons should have a voice in wildlife management  and they should be responsible for bearing a fair share of the cost of  wildlife management.

State conservation agencies in general and The Pennsylvania Game Commission in particular, are faced with declining hunter numbers and a  corresponding loss of revenue from license sales, while the legislature steadfastly refuses to give the agency a license increase.  So far the problem has been staved off by funding from timber sales, and Marcellus shale leasing,etc. but this will not carry the load forever.  As a result, there is a frantic effort to attract new hunters and to entice those that have quit hunting back into the fold.  There is a continual clamor for more and longer seasons, special seasons, mentored youth hunts, mentored adult hunts and on and on. At the same time, a substantial-or at least very vocal portion- of the hunting public believes that the whitetail deer population has been decimated by the excessive killing of does and this is the primary reason for the loss of interest in hunting.

This situation provides a fertile field for discussion and I hope to write about some of these issues in the coming year along with the usual photography content.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard  Hill.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.

Whitetail Buck Sheds Antlers

Yearling Spike: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS L II @ 135mm-ISO 400-1/400 sec. F 5.0

Each year one hears about hunters shooting what they assumed was a doe, only to find on close examination it was a buck that had already shed its' antlers. Most whitetail bucks in our area shed their antlers in early February. I have seen bucks that just lost their antlers in late December and early January. but it was not until this year that I was present when a spike buck lost both of his antlers in mid-December.

The buck is a small spike that did not disperse from his family group this fall and I have seen him almost daily since he was a fawn.  I saw him late in the afternoon of December 16th, as I was setting the cameras up and he still had both antlers.  Imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw that one antler was missing.  I tried to photograph him, but before I could get a shot he ran behind some other deer and when he was visible again, both antlers were gone. I did get some shots of the area where the antler attaches to the skull which is known as the pedicle. I wish I had a closer shot, but it was not possible.  As it is the photo below is severely cropped.

Pedicle: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm F 4.0-ISO 200-1/2500 sec. F 4.5

Spike After Shedding: Canon 5D MK III-Canon600mm F 4.0-ISO 400-1/800 sec. F  5.0

There was a bit of snow on the ground and I searched for the antlers, but it soon grew too late to see well and I gave up.  It snowed more that night and the ground was snow covered until Friday when the ground was bare again and I found one of the antlers.

Shed Antler: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 17-140mm@25mm-ISO 200-1/60 sec. F 7.1

Shed Antler: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 17-140mm@140mm-ISO 200-1/40 sec. F 9.0

Sometimes bucks shed their antlers simultaneously or as in this case a few moments apart, but in other instances it can be days. The antlers in the photo below were found in mid-April of last year. They were evidently cast only a few seconds apart.

Mature 8-Point Rack 2012-Found In Mid-April

In the case of the spike, it is possible I could have filmed an antler actually falling off had I kept the video camera running and followed him from the time he appeared, but that was not to be.  It is possible to film antlers being shed,  but it has to either be a lucky accident and they just happen to fall off at the correct time or it has to be captured by an unmanned camera as humans do not have the time or the patience to keep a camera running that long.

Originally Published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

More Whitetail Rut Images

Whitetail Buck Chasing Doe: Canon 7D-70-200mm f2.8 L IS II @70mm- ISO 400-1/640 Sec. f 5.0

I  spent most of November photographing the whitetail deer rut in Pennsylvania and Maryland. While I like to photograph deer at any time of year, the rut is an especially favorite time as the bucks are more easily visible and excitement can run high when they are chasing  the does--especially if a dominance fight occurs.  I did not get to either photograph or see a fight this year, but I did photograph several bucks with broken antlers, which were likely a result of fighting,  including the eight-point shown  below.

Eight-point With Broken Antler:  Canon 7D-70-200mm f2.8 L IS II @142mm- ISO 640-1/200 Sec. f 4.0

Buck Charges From Woods After Doe: Canon 7D-600mm f4.0 L IS - ISO 400-1/640 Sec. f  4.5

I couldn't be more pleased with the 600mm f4.0 that I started using this fall.  About the only downside to it is the weight and mass.  It comes in especially handy when photographing deer that are not as acclimated as park deer.  The lens especially paid off on the lip-curl photo below.  The buck was fairly close for a Pennsylvania whitetail, but the image is still heavily cropped to get the dramatic close-up composition.

Lip-curl: Canon 7D-600mm f 4.0 L IS- ISO 200-1/600 Sec. f 5.0

While I do prefer the 70D to the 7D in most cases, I have been using the 7D quite a bit for long range shots with the 600mm as the 70D is usually reserved for video use.  If possible I like to set up with the 600mm on a Gitzo tripod with Wimberley head and the 70D on a Manfrotto video tripod with fluid head. If the light level is low or the subjects are close enough I use the 5D MK III  with the 600mm to take advantage of its' superior image quality, but if the range is long and there is enough light I use the 7D body.

Mature Buck At Long Range: Canon 7D-600mm f 4.0 L IS- ISO 200-1/600 Sec. f 5.0

Pennsylvania rifle deer season came in on December 2nd this year and will go out at the close of shooting hours on the 14th.  Most of the bucks I photographed this fall are likely dead now as the rifles really hammered on the first day.  I began hunting as a teenager and was an avid hunter for most of my adult life with a special emphasis on deer. I quit hunting for any species at the end of the 1998 season and in fact all but quit at the end of the 1997 season, but that is a story for another day.  As it is I spend far more time afield than most hunters and have been out most of the daylight hours during deer season keeping close tabs on the local deer herd with my cameras close at hand.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.