A fantastic couple of days spent photographing Sika Deer at the ARNE RSPB reserve. My mentor/stalker who accompanied me was George Trebenski. George has a vast knowledge of Deer and their habits, and has been photographing them for some time winning awards for his images. He is well known in the realms of the British Deer Society. http://www.bds.org.uk/ . This was certainly a physically demanding challenge. The kit required to get these images consisted of two canon bodies, a 600mm lens tripod, and an assortment of smaller lenses. All this had to be carried over long distances all day. All the images are taken from the paths in the reserve, there is no point stepping off the pathways as this appears out of the ordinary to the Deer and it "spooks" them into disappearing. No feeding of the deer is allowed so you cannot entice them towards you. Light is also an issue, there isn't much of it in the forest and coupled with low cloud on day two it made photography even more difficult; some of the image shown were taken at 1/30 sec and ISO was stretched to 640 for some pictures. Anyone wishing to photograph deer in the wild will need long fast lenses a steady tripod and a guide with local knowledge of the subject and area. A porter also would be beneficial, or like me you carry your own kit. I will certainly visit again in the future, if you require more information please use the links below.
http://www.bds.org.uk/ (The British Deer Society)
http://www.deercountryimages.com/ (George Trebenski's website)