Roe buck Capreolus capreolus UK
For a long long time now I have wanted to grab a simply frame filling portrait for our native Roe deer. Me being me for some reason it had to be a boy . Roe are largely solitary,they aren't a parkland deer,where one can go and sit and play with relatively tame individuals,they are a wild native and hence can be tricky to get close too . I'm out after hares early this week and spotted this guy feeding by a hedge. The saddest bit for me was my lady couldn't watch me as I had to park up out of sight of him. They can be so flightly that at times even a vehicle slowing will make them move. This was a classic studeer stalk the first part covered incredibly quickly,using cover,that last 75yards took an hour or so.,every movement measured. By the time I was in view of him he'd settled for a nap,crawling through nettles for cover I was incredibly glad that all of me was covered including my face. I played the usual game of firing off shots early to get him settled with the shutter noise,had the wind and light (yippee) in my favour and one small obstruction,a hare. It's ironic all those hours spent on hares gave me the skillset to gentley move the hare on,a somewhat risky undertaking,but there was no choice. The buck stood up to see what bothered the hare,but all was good and with time he settle and I was fiinally able to move out a bit and finally grab some more unobstructed frames of him dozing at the base of the hedge .
Roe can be curious, he got up and now being so much higher than me lying on the floor became aware I was there,so slowly circled and got closer and closer.I made this one with my feet and upper body at right angles to each other still lying down,I must of looked like some form of contortionist, as he came round me no easy thing walking on elbows,my framing suffered but I grabbed a few that aren't too bad.
Steve and Stu Bowie encouraged me to try AV mode,I stuck to their advice but here with a chance like this and light to play with wasn't completely comfortable and in the heat of the moment,notched the wrong dial leading to the exp being slightly hotter than I would have liked. At this stage I certainly don't like using auto iso in AV,the camera chooses lower SS and iso than I want,but I've figured that if I set the iso manually and then add in EXP comp things seem to work better for me. AS I say early days well my first ever day, fun to try this though,although I still wish this chance had of come while I was a bit more familiar,with AV,i've shot M from the off.
As usaul the bulk of the work done in DPP, WB reduce exp colours cloned dust bunnies NR at default moved into PS then used layers and select subject while masking to add some depth via curves to the buck and sharpening. NO crop image is full frame.
Canon 1div 400DO ii 1.4 ext iii
1/1250 f8 iso 3200 AV mode which might be a shame. He moved from shade and I also feel the light brightened during his approach,I feel I would have squeezed more from the SS if in M,but you'll tell me if this has ruined the frame. If so a real shame ,because these chances are few and hard won,so my next chance might be a long time coming,we'll see. NB FP is again placed slightly high my bad ,ha ha I was a complete nervous wreck after this,a really intense encounter,I get too wrapped up in the momentwhen he left I lay on my back for five mins trying to remember how to breath ,so funny
Thanks for all the thoughts and encouragement, on my previous images.
take care all
stu
PS The buck is in the early stages of molt,in fact one can actually see hairs literally falling off him ,for those that don't know this species you can just start to see that vibrant orange of their summer coat above his eyes
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Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski
. I agree I was thankful for that bit of leg. 
This is very very important
