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| Mid-May Countryside: Canon40D-EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM |
Mid-May,
and most trees and shrubs are in full leaf. It seems only a short time
ago that the countryside was drab and brown. The whitetail deer are
very ragged looking as the thick, brown,winter coats slowly give way to
the thin, red hair of summer. Within a few weeks these animals will be
sleek, beautiful creatures once again.
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| Young Doe With Ragged Winter Coat: Canon 5D Mark III-Canon 24-105mm F4 IS L |
The does are in the late stages of
pregnancy and a few of the fawns have already been born, although I have
not yet seen any. The local herd does not usually have their fawns
until the last few days of May, with the vast majority being born in
early to mid- June. The first fawn sightings are always a special
thrill.
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| Adult Does: Canon 40D-Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM |
While the does are getting ready to give birth, the
turkeys are still engaged in mating activity, but one is not nearly so
likely to see a mature gobbler strutting as they were a few weeks ago.
Rather one may flush them while walking through the woodlands or see
them as they feed in the meadows.
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| Young Gobblers a.k.a. "Jakes": Canon 5D Mark III- Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS USM |
But sometimes one is lucky enough to see a mature
gobbler in full courtship display. Almost invariably there is a hen
feeding nearby and the gobbler usually struts as long as she remains in
the area.
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| Mature Gobbler Strutting: Panasonic GH3-LUMIX G- 100-300/F4.0-5.6 @ 300mm |
While I usually use the 5D MK III and the
7D for still photography and the Panasonic GH3 for video, I find I the
GH3 is also very good for still photography and is much better in that
respect than its' predecessor the GH2. The GH3 has a 2X crop factor
compared to a full frame sensor camera so the 100-300 is the equivalent
of a 200-600mm zoom on the 5D MK III. It is not as tack sharp and has
more distortion, etc., but l it is still a very usable lens. The
gobbler was quite a distance away and I cropped the image
significantly to make this photo. Unfortunately I did not have the 5D
MK III with the 500mm lens set up on a tripod, as I would have liked to
get some shots with it to have a good comparison of quality, but the
bird did not tolerate me getting this rig into shooting position and
left the meadow. I also would have liked to had the 500mm on the
Panasonic for this photo, but I selected the 100-300mm when I set up
that evening as I was concentrating on capturing video and wanted a lens
that was capable of covering a wide range of situations. As it was I
got a decent portrait of the gobbler and many very satisfactory video
clips.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
