The rut begins

[Stuart Hill]

Here in my part of the UK the Red Deer rut is just beginning and this chap was pumped! Testosterone oozing so strong you could smell it in the air.

In fact, the stag came a cross me later in the day. A group of photographers were photographing a large group of hinds and he was lay i the middle. Reading the terrain and where the togs were I positioned myself a long way off, but where I thought, due to the pressure of these thoughtless people would lead the deer to me.

It worked! The hinds walked very calmly straight by, followed by the stag, maybe 40-50ft away from me, omnly giving me a casual eye. However, realising he'd left a hind, the stag came back and collected her. This time passing only 20ft from where I was knelt.

My heart nearly came through my chest as he stopped infront of me and turned. At this point, I took this as a warning. He took one step towards me, eyes blazing. I, immediately stood slowly and began a retreat. The stag watched until he was happy and then walked off, back to his hinds.

My wife, who had come with me for the day, wondered why I was shaking and what a wonderful experience being so close to a large deer was. Until I explained, that was way too close and if I hadn't read the situation correctly, chances are, we would have been in hospital!

Kind regards.
Stu.

D3 500mm+1.4x 1/320 @ f5.6 iso1600 - small crop off the left. Lots of space to give a sense of place to where this guy lives.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stuart, always good to keep your distance with these guys at present as they can be rather unpredictable and do not like ANY intruders. The hinds I found have been very skittish on approach meaning they are constantly on the move followed closely by the main guy who then rounds them up again. :S3: You have caught him in that 'classic' pose, although trying to retain any breath is difficult but would be great. I feel you can crop tighter from above, still retaining the environment feel. If you can get an images with the bracken entangled in the antlers would be great, just lookout for when he is scent marking, or lavishly covering himself in his own personal 'essence'. Personally I might remove what seems to be two hinds in the BKG just to keep the nice tones & consistency of the habitat on the LHS, but no deal breaker.

I guess this was at BG Park?

Look forward to more.

TFS
Steve

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Stuart,

Great story. Sounds like you had a grand day out! I like the use of the space and the pose of the stag is a real classic, as Steve noted. I might be tempted to halve the space above the tree with a crop across the top, but that is a question of personal taste.

Looking forward to seeing those shots from 20ft - or was there too much camera shake? :S3:

Gerald

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Stuart,
excellent story along with this image.

Like the classic rutting pose of this guy. For my taste there is too much space on top of the image.
The image lacks in contrast and sharpness in the deer and FG.I would darken the FG slightly and adding contrast to it and the deer.Some more USM on the deer.
Colors look a bit on the magenta side in the reds, could be because image has no color profile embedded.

Hope to see some more.

Andreas

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the critique. Hope you like the repost, I've taken on board everything said and do like the crop better.

Steve, yep, Bradgate ;-)

kind regards.
Stu.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, that is much better the whole comp just works now IMHO, plus you have the correct Colour profile too, excellent.

OK, having just spent a whole day with these guys, but not at such a picturesque location as yours, I couldn't resist a quick look at yours, although as I'm doing this off site I hope I'm going in the right direction as this is done/viewed on a non calibrated monitor, well MacBook Pro laptop so... Firstly I think you can punch up the FG colour, plus the stag too. A bit more sharpening wouldn't hurt on the Stag and parts of the sharper foliage, I think. I like what I saw in the original post (OP) the RP I think has lost some of the initial character. Hope this helps.

Sorry meant to say, i think the RP has a slight Blue cast too it, reducing it does help too.
Cheers
Steve

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the guidance Steve. Having trouble after installing ps cs6 my save for web action has stopped tagging the sRGB profile?

Anyways, have a trip to Bradgate if you can. Lots of rocky outcrops, bracken and forest. 2hr drive from warrington!

kind regards.
Stu.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely image Stu. Steve's repost is the best for me, but for my tastes I would still darken the image as a whole just a fraction, and add some midtone contrast and sharpening to the big guy. Sounds like it was a thrilling moment! These are the moments that make us go back time and again :5

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, firstly ensure you 'Convert to Profile' under Edit and change the Destination space to sRGB... Now when you go into Save for web ensure that Optimized, Embed Colour profile is checked (ticked) also the box underneath Covert to sRGB that should resolve your issues.

Yes Bradgate is well known, that is where Danny Green shoots a lot of his stuff, as it's right on his doorstep, plus I go pass it on a regular journey back & forth on the M1, but have never swung by, time for me is about the same. :S3:

Let me know how you get on with the settings.
Steve