Over the last five years, I have been photographing quite a few of the animals inhabiting Hartwood Acres, a historical landmark consisting of the former estate of the John and Mary Flinn Lawrence family, and 629 acres of pristine forest. Red-tailed hawk, whitetail deer, turkey, raccoon, and fox are regular inhabitants of the park. Rumor has it that coyotes have been spotted as well.

Despite their similarities, deer actually have very distinct facial characteristics and markings, making them easily distinguishable from one another if you are able to get close enough and spend enough time with them. I have seen some of the younger buck progress through a series of antlers from first year spikes all the way up to 12 points. I even have nicknames for some of them, such as “Almond Eyes”, in the photo below.

May and June offer an excellent opportunity to capture photographs of fawns. Having had the opportunity to spend significant time in the Hartwood Acres park (now part of the Allegheny County Park system), I can offer a few tips for preparing to photograph the upcoming springtime birth of fawns and maximizing your chances of capturing great photos of them.

Deer – Creatures of Habit

Most deer are born, live, and die within one square mile. Most people, however, believe this range is much broader. This simple fact represents a major opportunity for a wildlife photographer, since, once you find a deer family, you can narrow your search to a relatively small area. It pays to explore local nature preserves, parks, state game lands, forests, and even suburban neighborhoods to identify deer activity and habits. As a teenager, I would analyze topographical maps to identify likely deer routes and bedding areas. With Google Maps, however, I can easily get an interactive view of potential deer habitat, which is far superior to that provided by traditional topographical maps.
On rare occasion, you may even zoom into Google Maps and actually see deer in the satellite image. Topographical maps never provided that level of detail! Once you find a family of deer, spend some time during early morning and evening hours in the area identifying their movements. You can also search the area to find food sources, bedding areas, lookout posts, trails, and other deer sign that will provide insights to their habits.

May Through June – Fawns Born

In Pennsylvania, fawns are typically born from mid-May through late June. Depending on where you live, fawns may be born on a slightly different schedule. Most doe give birth to two or three fawns. Once you have located a family of deer, make sure you spend some time carefully walking through the areas of heavy brush, where mother deer are likely to hide their fawns. I have noticed that areas of lush fern growth are often favorite hiding places, as they provide quite a bit of cover for the vulnerable newborns. As you walk through the area, be on the lookout for a mature doe, as she may purposely attempt to lead you away from her hidden fawns.

Good photographers (like hunters) scan their surroundings very carefully, looking at thin vertical slices of the forest, rather than the whole scene. Walk slowly and have your camera ready. Instinctively, most fawns will lie completely still and let you get to within very close distances before bolting from their bed. As they make their getaway, they will often make some high pitched “bleating” sounds! I once approached a fern-covered area, only to come face-to-face with a fawn curled up in the classic “C” position, barely three feet away. We looked at each other for a few moments, until the fawn sprang straight up in the air, nearly at my eye level, and bolted out of site. All the while, my DSLR dangled helplessly from my neck! Score: Fawn – 1, Bob – 0! Be prepared…

When You Find the Fawns and Mom Isn’t Around

Fawns rarely leave their mother’s side. But occasionally, mom needs to venture off for food or draw predators away from her offspring. Without access to affordable daycare, mother deer normally leave their newborns in a selected area, and by some communication abilities unknown to humans, inform the little ones not to follow her. Just how she does this is a mystery, as the fawns’ instinct is to follow mom wherever she goes.
When I come across a pair of fawns (rarely do I find a single fawn), I first scan the area for mom. If I cannot spot the mother, I assume she has ventured off for food and instructed the fawns to stay put. This represents a photography opportunity!

Instincts and Figure Eights

When mom has departed the scene, the fawns’ natural instinct is to remain in the same location until mom returns. This works fine until you or someone else appears to be some form of threat that might necessitate their moving. The main lesson is that fawns, even when disturbed and compelled to flee the scene, will always return to where their mother left them. This simple, but powerful rule enables you to understand and anticipate their behavior. Over the years, I have come across many fawns that exhibited this behavior. Mind you, they never run too far or too quickly, as they don’t really want to leave the area.

As such, once the fawns start moving away from you, they will do so in spurts. They will sprint 10 or 15 yards at a clip, but then pause to see if you are still following, perhaps even showing a bit of curiosity and advancing toward you at times. The best part? You know exactly where they are going – in a big circle, perhaps 30-50 yards in diameter. And then they are right back to where mom left them. If mom shows up however, all bets are off, and she can lead them anywhere to get away from you. But shy of mom returning, the fawns will continue to make large circles, always returning to the original location where you found them. Along the way, the fawns will give the opportunity to take quite a few photos, assuming you simply walk behind them at a relatively slow pace.

I have often followed fawns around in circle so many times that I have given up, sensing their frustration and just plain exhaustion of my “chasing” them for the better part of an hour or so. Throughout each cycle, I have often seen them anxiously looking around for mom to come back and save them from the crazy guy with the camera that is simply not content to leave them be!

Summary

Although I no longer carry a rifle when pursuing deer, many of the hunting lessons I learned have yielded benefits in the area of wildlife photography. The willingness to understand animals’ habitat is critical to improving the opportunities to get close to wildlife on a regular basis. Understanding where to look for fawns during these upcoming critical months, and anticipating their instinctive behavior can mean the difference between taking run of the mill photos, and capturing a series of high quality wildlife pictures that you will treasure for a lifetime.

While in Yellowstone, there was not a day when I did not see black bears. First day I was super excited about seeing a bear cub walk alone and eat flowers, so I took several hundred pictures of him eating, resting and playing. My favorite picture was with the cub sitting in between many wildflowers. Of course those pictures are all gone, so it is only a memory. During the next bear encounters, I only photographed when the bears were close. For the first couple of shots, I would use the Nikon D5100 and then switch to my D3s, due to better and more accurate autofocus. Here are some images of bears from the Nikon D5100 + Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR combo.

This is a black bear that some call “Cinnamon” bear:

This guy was rubbing his back on a tree trunk:

And then eventually moved on:

Another bear that got very close to us (less than 100 yards):

By the end of the week, whenever I saw black bears, I would just move on, since I was more interested in seeing grizzlies instead. A video of a grizzly bear roaming around will be posted shortly.

We saw plenty of other wildlife in Yellowstone and I took many pictures of coyotes, hawks, falcons and eagles, pronghorns, mountains goats and more. Don’t ask me where those images are! The biggest loss was pictures of 6 coyote cubs playing and one adult coyote catching and eating a ground squirrel. My previous coyote pictures were a joke in comparison. Oh well, let’s move on.

I rarely even look at bison in Yellowstone. Because they are just everywhere. While driving through one of the roads, I noticed a calf feeding at sunset and took a picture from the car window:

Here are some other pictures of Yellowstone taken with the Nikon D5100:

These two crows were enjoying the early morning at Yellowstone:

And wildflowers were everywhere:

It turns out July is a great month to be in Yellowstone.

On the road to Glacier, I found this old truck and took a picture:

We started our first day at Two Medicine, which is the southern part of the park. There was a waterfall, very close to our campsite and we hiked there to take some pictures. This is one of the first pictures from Glacier:

Never take pictures of waterfalls in sunny days!

Again, wildflowers were everywhere:

Lakes and waterfalls were breathtaking:

Some more pictures of the Two Medicine lake:

Here is Saint Mary lake during on a windy day:

And more waterfalls:

Here is Avalanche Creek’s rain-forest:

Sunrise at Saint Mary Lake:

This prairie chicken showed up while I was taking pictures of mountain peaks and just stood there. I switched from my Nikon 24-70mm to 200-400mm f/4 and took this picture while it stood still:

Another sunrise shot of St Mary Lake on a clear morning with the moon:

Hope you like these, although it is a pity that most of the good pictures have been lost.

1) Roseate Spoonbills 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

2) Osprey Eating Fish 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

3) Marmot Standing Up 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

4) Great White Egret 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

5) Coyote 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

6) Clark’s Nutcracker Feeding 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

7) Burrowing Owl in Flight 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

Western Meadowlark 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

1) Geese at Sunrise

2) American Pika 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

3) Hawk on Hay 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

4) Burrowing Owl Chick 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

5) Roseate Spoonbill 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

6) Black-necked Stilt 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

7) Black Bear Cub 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

8) Baby Marmot 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

I did not even know about Hell’s Half Acre until our trip to Yellowstone. We stopped on the way in one of the resting areas in Wyoming and it had some pictures of the place with some info. Since I was not too far away, I decided to drive there and check it out.

The unusual formations look kind of scary at first, but the when you look closer, you start seeing some of the beauty of this interesting place:

Textures were just everywhere and the colors were stunning!

I used the Nikon D3s with my favorite landscape photography lens, the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G for all of the above shots at f/5.6 and f/8.0 apertures. When you shoot distant landscapes standing on overlooks, your aperture does not matter much. Since most lenses are designed to be the sharpest at f/8.0, I typically use apertures between f/8.0 and f/11.0 for most of my landscape work. Occasionally, I might shoot at f/5.6 or lower, but only if I need more light (for more tips, check out my landscape photography guide).

After a very short break, Lola and I went back to the car and continued our journey to Yellowstone. As we drove a few miles away from Hell’s Half Acre, I saw a large bird perched on an electric pole. First, I thought it was a red-tail hawk, but then I saw another one, perched close to a … red-tail hawk, which looked twice smaller! At that moment, I knew it was the mighty Golden Eagle! I immediately turned around and went back to where the bird was. I could not believe my eyes! I have been trying to photograph wild golden eagles for years now and this one was sitting so close to the road, it just did not care. I immediately took out my 200-400mm bazooka and took a few shots of the bird before it took off. The pictures did not turn out that great because the sun was behind the bird, but I managed to capture one shot that I like:

If you do not know about golden eagles, they are basically top predators, one of the largest birds in the world. In some countries, golden eagles are trained to hunt foxes, wolves and even deer! Check out this awesome video on Youtube of golden eagles hunting on mountain goats:

Crazy stuff, it is hard to believe the type of animals this bird can take down! There are some other videos on Youtube of golden eagles hunting in Mongolia, check them out too.

Anyway, after we arrived to Yellowstone, the first place I wanted to go to for some reason, was Mammoth Hot Springs. I really enjoyed being there last year and saw many photographic opportunities there. It was a far drive all the way to the northeast part of the park, but I stopped in a couple of spots to see if I could spot some wolves and bears. We did eventually see a wolf, but it was so far away that the images did not come out good, even with a teleconverter. Mammoth Hot Springs were a little boring this time, because it was a cloudless day and the sun was very harsh. I found a few spots here and there and took some shots:

Obviously, with all those hot springs, there is plenty of bacteria that create beautiful textures:

Lola took the above image with the D700 and the Nikon 105mm f/2.8G VR macro lens at f/8.0.

Without any clouds in the sky, the sunset was rather boring – I did not even care to use my graduated ND filter to darken the sky a little:

Our next day started with an early morning drive across Yellowstone lake. It was my dream to capture a hot spring early in the morning, so I found a few good spots and captured the following images of the Yellowstone lake:

Both images were captured with the Nikon D700 + 24-70mm lens. I had my filter set with me, but for reflections like these, there was no need for them…

We spent the last morning at the Grand Prismatic Spring, where I captured some early morning shots with the sun appearing above the mountains and casting some light on the vapor:

Apparently, some well-known landscape photographer was in the area, taking pictures of the springs (don’t remember his name). As the light was glimpsing through the vapor, I took a picture of him:

I should find him and sell him his own picture, LOL :)

Here is the last picture I took before leaving the area:

We then headed off to some other places in the park, scouting for some early morning shots. Yellowstone is full of all kinds of beautiful colors:

As we drove through the park, I found a spot where the water looked black due to black igneous rock. I just rolled down my window and took a shot:

At the time, I did not even notice that an active distant geyser was in the middle of the frame! I only saw it when I got home. After taking some more pictures of nature, we then drove through some of the 4×4 roads. On our way out, Lola noticed a bear mom with two cubs right across the road. I immediately pulled out my camera and started taking pictures. The fur-balls were super-cute (God forbid if you try to approach them when mom is around). Here is the first cub:

Then the second cub:

At one point, one of the cubs got so interested in us, that he started moving towards us. The mom obviously got very angry and whatever she did caused the cub to run away like crazy. He then hid behind a bunch of logs, looking at mom and asking for forgiveness:

After a short while, mom gave a welcome signal and the cub joined mom again. Although I did not do much video shooting, I did capture a couple of clips with the bears – here is one of them:

I was hand-holding the 200-400mm and the humming noise is actually coming from VR (Vibration Reduction), which saves me all the time when shooting with this heavy lens.

That’s pretty much the end of our trip log to Yellowstone. On the way back to Denver, I captured one more shot of a valley during sunset:

Which did not turn out so well…

I have been super busy performing tests on over 12 lenses (more on that later), including the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and the new Nikon TC-20E III. It was very painful to find the TC-20E III, but I got one on my hands and I have been extensively testing it with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II. I have also been comparing the results with my Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0G VR, so I will soon publish some very interesting findings for those, who are interested in high performance telephoto gear for sports and wildlife photography.

For now, here is a sample of the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II with the TC-20E III at 600mm:

And here is a 100% crop:

Amazing sharpness and contrast, I am truly impressed. Here is the same coyote caught in action with the same lens combo:

More to come!

It was getting dark quickly, so after taking some pictures of the coyote, I decided to shoot some video at ISO 6400. If you have enough bandwidth, I highly suggest viewing the 720 HD version – just select 720p from the drop-down once the video starts playing.

I apologize for the camera shake – I had to set the camera on the driver window without any proper support.

Now if only the D3s could shoot 1080p video…

The focus was dead on and all sequential images came out tack sharp, as expected.

As we arrived to the park right at sunset, we found a deer, along with a killdeer roaming around the park :)

The killdeer shot was taken at ISO 2,800, 1/1600th of a second.

Right after sunset, I noticed some pheasants in the field:

There were at least 5-6 of them in one spot and as I approached closer with the car, they all flew away:

Normally, I do not try photographing birds with the D700 after sunset, because of lack of light. In this case, I cranked up the ISO to 12,800 and let the camera manage the ISO for me. The first image was shot at ISO 1,600 and the second one at ISO 1,800, both at 1/1250th of a second @ f/5.6 on Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 + 1.4x TC.

While returning home, I noticed a large bird flying off to the side of the road. I thought it was a hawk, but I stopped to take a quick look. It was so dark that I could not tell what it was, until I heard a loud screech. After I realized that it was an owl, I decided to try out the D3s at a really high ISO. I cranked up the ISO to 25,600 and took a few shots of the owl:

When I looked at the camera LCD, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The camera was able to capture the bird in such a dark environment, that I could not correctly focus through either the viewfinder, or the liveview screen. The image is obviously out of focus and noisy, but it is still not bad at all. I ran one pass of noise reduction and resized the image and I’m very impressed with the results. Nikon D3s is truly one monster camera for low-light photography!

Unfortunately, one of the worst computer disasters hit me last year, when my hard drive died and I lost two very precious weeks of photographs. Those photographs were priceless – I captured a fox with 5 fox kits in their natural habitat: playing, cuddling with each other and chasing, capturing and eating mice. All of those photos were lost for good and I was only able to save a low-resolution version of a couple of pictures that I sent over email to a fox rescuer. Honestly, if there was a way to save those pics, I would have traded them over everything else I got in 2009…that’s how valuable they were for me. I resized those low-res images of foxes and I’m attaching them here. Although they are not as good when it comes to quality, I still love them.

1) Red Fox 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

2) Red Fox Kit 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

3) Mountain Pika 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

4) Mountain Pika Voice 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

5) Male Buffalo 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

6) Island Fox 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

7) Female Buffalo 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

8) Dolphin Jump 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

9) Coyote 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

10) Channel Islands Side-Blotched Lizard 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper