I shot this from the edge of my campsite (SW4) up on the SW rim at Big Bend National Park. I was taking a nap on the bear box (long hike :p) when I heard something rustling around. I grabbed my camera and with the camera to my eye I slowly walked toward her. I stopped about 3' - 4' from her and took this shot. She walked off a few seconds later.
Nice even illumination of your subject here Michael. As far as comp goes I would have preferred the doe more on the right side of the frame so the eye was close to the upper right power point. I'm never crazy about a down angle on wildlife. I always try to shoot from slightly below eye level.. Thanks for sharing...
Call me conservative, but I've never been crazy angles on wildlife either...(although it does work in some cases). Here I would have preferred it from a lower angle. It would have worked better if you would have chosen a longer focallenght, leaving you with less DOF. This would bring the rest of her body OOF, and leave you with a more creative photograph. You did very well getting close to this one. Composition-wise I'd have to agree with Robert here....it would have been nicer if you would have placed her more to the left of the frame.
Thanks for the comments guys. In hindsight I probably should have dropped to one knee. I wasn't sure how she would react though. I was 10-12 miles and 2,500 - 3,000' up a mountain trail in the middle of nowhere so it's not like she was tame.
Jasper- As it was my pack was 55 pounds and I was on a trip to take sunrise / sunset images from the rim of a canyon. I wanted to take my 300mm f2.8 or at least 70-200 f2.8 but the weight of the gear made me rethink it. Trust me, there was enough wildlife seen on the trip that I had boot marks on my backside for not manning up and taking at least the 70-200 but on the other side of the coin, I made the trip up in 8 hours and by the time I got there I was wishing that my pack had been left behind. I tried to pace myself at 1mph but I stopped too many times and the final push up was pretty steep in places.