Saturday, October 20, 2012

Autumn Colors and Rutting Whitetails

The autumn colors are slowly reaching their peak here in Southcentral Pennsylvania.  This is not one of the most colorful fawns I can remember, but it is good. At first the colors were reserved and subtle as the scene below, taken late in the evening on September 30th illustrates.

Early Autumn: Canon 5D MK III 24-105L @ 35mm-  ISO 1000-1/40 sec. f4
Autumn color was nearing its' peak by mid-October, so I spent some time concentrating on taking scenic shots.  Unfortunately early morning and evening is the best time for photographing both scenery and whitetail bucks, so I usually end up picking the deer over the scenery.  I would preferred to have taken the following shots under a bit different lighting conditions, but still I think they capture the essence of autumn to an acceptable degree.  Woodland steams and cornfields are an integral part of the autumn landscape here in Fulton County. A circular polarizer was used on the second and third shots, which enhanced the richness of the colors.

Autumn Glory: Canon 5D MK III 17-40L @ 17mm-  ISO 100-1/50 sec. f8
Autumn Cornfield: Canon 5D MK III 24-105L 4535mm-  ISO 100-1/100 sec. f8
This is the backdrop against, which the bucks are chasing does during the early stages of the whitetail rut. The rut began early this year and most days yield one or more buck sightings, but the tempo should pick up even more in the next few weeks.

Whitetail Buck in Hot Pursuit of Doe: Canon 5D MK III 500mm F4L-  ISO 1600-1/640 sec. f4

Whitetail Buck Pauses From Chasing Doe: Canon 5D MK III 500mm F4L-  ISO 1600-1/800 sec. f4
Soon the leaves will be gone and the whitetail rut will be at its' peak and then all to soon fall we be over, and once again we will face the bitter winter months.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.


5 comments:

Nancy J said...

Lovely photos, do the deer migrate anywhere or just hunker down when it is really cold? Thanks for the settings, as a Canon 550D user, I so appreciate them Cheers from Jean.

Ruth Hiebert said...

As a photographer,there is always something of beauty to capture. Your fall scenes are as lovely as the deer.

Willard said...

Nancy,
The deer here do not migrate although I understand that they do in the some of the western states. Also in areas with more severe winters they may form deer yards during the winter when the snow is that deep. It never gets that deep here. The same does are seen year around, but the bucks do travel over a wider range and in most cases disperse from their home range sometime after they are 1 year old--this varies with the individual animal. This is a natural mechanism to prevent in-breeding.

Lindsjö taxar said...

Wow, lovely pictures......we dont have elks here living wild in our area. On the east coast Västervik there is a private elk enclosure (dont know if its the right word).
In some parts they are living wild...

Linda G. said...

Lovely fall colors! As always enjoy the photographs of the wildlife that you capture.

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