Professional nature & wldlife photography and exciting nature photography tours by D. Robert Franz

Posts tagged ‘fall’

The pronghorn rut 2014

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn buck

Went to my local pronghorn hotspot the other morning to check on the status of the rut (mating season).   The pronghorn rut usually starts in September so I knew I was a bit early but was curious to see what was happening.  Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) are usually referred to as antelope or pronghorn antelope.  They are not an antelope at all but a totally unique species native to the North American continent.  They have horns (not antlers) but shed these horns yearly (like antlers).  Pronghorn are built for speed and for life in the open country of the western United States.  Agriculture, fencing and unregulated hunting dramatically reduced there numbers but with sound wildlife management principles of the 20th century they have rebounded nicely.  Here in Wyoming pronghorn outnumber people.  I think they are one of the most striking species of wildlife we have and love photographing them.

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn buck

I didn’t see the usual numbers of pronghorn but did find a few. I found this nice buck right off the bat, but had to work him with back light since there was no way to get around to the other side of him.  I photograph the pronghorn from my vehicle since they wouldn’t tolerate a person on foot.  I wasn’t concerned since with the right conditions back light (the sun was behind the subject) can produce very dramatic images. During the 1st half hour after sunrise and the last half hour before sunset I like shooting this style of images.  With light colored subjects like this pronghorn you still get great detail on the shadowed side.  You get an overall warm glow to the image.  On both of the above images I had my Canon EF800mm F5.6L lens with my Eos !Dmk4 camera attached.  Shooting in evaluative metering I added a stop of light to obtain this exposure.

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn herd

Pronghorn herd

These two images were shot with the sun over my shoulder which is called front light.  It has quite a different feel than the back lite images.  On sunny days you can work front lite images for the first couple of hours after sunrise and the last 2 hours before sunset and get excellent results.

Roosting white pelicans

Roosting white pelicans

On my way home I drove by the lake and found this flock of white pelicans roosting in the shallows.  Again I was using my 800mm right from the car.  It framed them nicely.  All in all it wasn’t to bad a morning.

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Wyoming Mule Deer

Mule deer buck in snow
 

Mule deer buck with does

I’ve just returned home from a weeklong trip to photograph migratory mule deer in Southwestern Wyoming.   I’ve done well in years past but I was uncertain of the number and quality of the deer I would be able to find this year.  Wyoming has had two severe winters in a row with heavy spring snow, when wildlife is most vulnerable to starvation.   The Wyoming Game & Fish Department has reported heavy winter mortality in the area. 

This year we’ve had a relatively dry fall so far and not a lot of snow has fallen in the high mountains which forces the deer down to their winter range.  It seems many of the larger bucks are still high or migrating down from the mountains.  In areas where I’ve found many mature bucks in the past they were quite scarce this year. 

I was able to find a good number of younger bucks like this one shown below.  I’ve been told that the younger bucks migrate earlier than the mature bucks.  Overall I saw plenty of deer (more than expected)  and a good number of fawns with most of the does having twins.

Mule deer buck

I began searching the mule deers transitional range which are areas you would expect to find mule deer travelling along their migration route down from the high mountains to their winter range at lower elevattion. Access was difficult but I was able to locate some nice mature bucks in this habitat such as this fine buck in an aspen grove below.

Mule deer buck in snowy aspen grove

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Recent Travels

I’m been away from my blog for far to long.  November is typically a very busy month for me photographically and this year hasn’t been an exception.  I’m just back from trips to South Texas, Colorado and South Dakota to photograph mule and whitetail deer.  Most of the locations I travelled to didn’t have internet access.

Texas Trophy Whitetail Buck

This buck was photographed on an 8000 acre private ranch in South Texas that I visited with my long time friend Bill Draker.  The annual fall rut (or mating season) was a bit late this year and unfortunately I was leaving just as the rut was kicking in.  The bucks were just beginning to show themselves and I managed a few good opportunities.

Later Afternoon Whitetail Buck

 I flew back to Colorado from Texas to spend a week photographing the mule deer rut and I caught it just right and managed to capture some great images of some magnificent mule deer bucks.   I cut my teeth photographing mule deer in the early to mid 80’s and to this day they remain one of my favorite subjects.

"Big Sky"

 Over the years I’ve photographed some of the largest mule deer bucks ever photographed and when I find deer of that caliber I usually come up with a name for them.   This fantastic buck has earned the name “Big Sky”.   Hope to photograph him for years to come.  In this situation I had too much lens and had to keep backing up.  For some reason the doe he was courting kept approaching me??  I was using my 800mm F5.6L which made that a bit of a problem.  As usual I was carrying another body with a EF70-200mm lens over my shoulder and used it when “Big Sky” got to close for the 800mm.

Rutting Mule Deer Buck

This is another fine buck I found.  Here he’s exhibiting the flehem response which is the way ungulates determine if the females are in heat.  In this rugged brushy habitat I was handholding my 300mm F2.8L IS which really delivered the goods and allowed me to work quickly when the opportunity arose.

"Deep Fork"

Here’s another buck that’s earned a name.  I photographed him in the same location two years ago and I was very happy to see him again.  I’m not done with mule deer yet!  I leave tomorrow for another week of mule deer photography here in Wyoming.  I’ll be working on migratory deer coming down out of the high country.  I hope to have more images of great bucks upon my return.

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