I was fortunate on this morning’s trek through the woods to locate the deer herd grazing along the trail. I never hit the trail without my camera in hopes of capturing some kind of wildlife about their business in the wilderness.
It was early so the sun had not cleared the ridge and the light a bit faint when I saw the first doe peeking at me from behind a tree. A quick look around revealed a small herd of does foraging for food in the early light of dawn. I set my camera to ISO 400 for the low light situation with a quarter stop exposure increase to compensate for the light brown color of the deer and moved into position for a shot at the closest doe. All the deer had been aware of my presence long before I noticed them so they were keeping a wary eye on my every movement.
I slipped in closer behind a tree so they wouldn’t notice my movement, but not too close. My 200mm lens would have to compensate for the distance. Leaning against one of the pines to keep the camera steady, I began to shoot as many of the deer as I could arrange into a pleasing composition. These deer have grown accustomed to my presence in our three years of sharing these woods and allowed me to hang with them long enough to get a satisfactory number of captures.
From that point, the rest of my hike was just for fun and exercise. Of course I kept an eye out for more of the Pike National Forest’s furry inhabitants, but I was satisfied with my early success and just kept a steady stride and enjoyed the exercise and the fresh air and solitude of the Colorado Wilderness.
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