The jump

[joel quenneville]

During the last couple weeks, the thermometer has been creeping above zero during the day. Although to many, this means the start of the sugar season, I think of it as the beginning of deer season (photographers only:D). As the snow starts to disappear off of local golf courses and farmer's fields, winter-hungry deer congregate for a free lunch. I caught deer fever again this year so I headed out to some of the local hot-spots. Although the "wind and light at your back" setup may work well with spoonbills:D, having the wind blow towards the deer isn't ideal for portraits, although I got many group running shots. Hope you enjoy this one.

1/1000s
f/8
ISO 400
Sigma 120-300 + 1.4x TC @ 420 mm -- Handheld
Nikon D300
Manual Exposure Mode

[Jasper Doest]

While the colors of this scene are pretty nice, the images misses an anchor point IMO. This is a typical image that would be indispensable in a image story about deer...but as a single image it isn't strong enough IMO.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Joel,
I agree with previous comments. I such situations, it is better to concentrate on a few and try to create some patterns. However, that requires more focal length or moving even closer to the animals.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Steve Canuel]

Looks like my most of my whitetail deer pics. All heading the opposite direction. I like the "run to the safety of the distant woods" look but agree with the previous posters. Would be interesting to see the difference just one standing still looking at you would've made.

[Robert Amoruso]

Joel,

Good points above. Looking at this from a landscape perspective, the pano works well and the layering of the grass to snow to brush to snow to treeline imparts depth. The tree on right could off a good anchor point if more was included and it was moved left on the frame.

For the deer, having them grazing and facing you would have produced a peaceful scene. Moving of standing parallel to the camera also good, running away not so good.