On this blog, I must be honest with you. Like many photographers in the digital age, I delete many more images than I save and there are even fewer that I think are worth taking the time to process. More often than not, my trips out with my camera result in no usable images. If I am lucky I spot wildlife but don’t get decent images, for whatever reason. On a bad day, wildlife is conspicuous by its absence.
On this particular day, we had gone for a walk along the banks of the Clyde near Renfrew. Rain clouds threatened and I wasn’t feeling very well but we were desperate for a bit of air so we decided on a short walk.
I had my camera but kept it in my bag as I wasn’t expecting to see anything until we got to the river and, even then, I knew that the non-existent light was unlikely to make for stunning images. My first mistake. Less than a minute out of the car we spotted this roe deer browsing a few metres from the path. I was positive she would bolt, but she carried on eating, obviously used to people walking nearby.
I got my camera out of my bag as quietly as I could, bumped up the ISO to compensate for the low light and started to shoot as quickly as possible as I could see other people approaching. That was my second mistake. I was rushing and had not realised that my camera had switched to live view as I pulled it out of my bag. This resulted in more cursing as I tried to switch it back and refocus before the other walkers arrived and we had to move.
It turned out that the doe was not particularly bothered. I could have taken more time to think about my images. I could have changed my position but I was too worried about missing her completely. This led to only capturing a couple of usable images. It felt like I had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory!
The lesson that doe taught me was to slow down and use my brain, such as it is! I should have realised that if she was that close to the path, she was probably not as skittish as the other roe deer I had encountered. I could have taken my time and got better images. It also served as a reminder to always be ready to shoot – no matter how uninspiring the conditions or location may seem.
Lessons learned. I look forward to my next encounter with this dainty deer species.