My Wife & The Night Visitors

[Patman]

Has this happened to anyone…I was expecting lots of deer the other night because snow was due. I feed them all year long. I spent a good part of the day preparing for these shots. Positioned food tray, set up ladder and moved lights to cover tray area, cleaned windows, inside and out, set up tripod with camera, focused on tray, and went out to do some chores. Last night when the deer started appearing I went to shoot, wife moved tripod and camera, no more focus. It took about 10 deer and 20 shots too get back into close focus. Women!!! These were shot with the M8, ISO 2500, 2secs@f2.8 with 135mm lens.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

One of the inevitible realitites of being married is that stuff moves. 🙂

 

[ampguy]

very nice, I'd go for a bit of underexposure to reduce noise a tad, and get a faster shutter speed.

 

[nikon_sam]

Should have left a note on the tripod/camera..."Please, Do Not Move"
It's all your fault...😀😎😱
Nice shots BTW...🙂

What are they eating???

 

[Patman]

They are eating Corn, I put out about 25lbs of corn everyday, all Winter. In the Spring I still get a few coming around but not to many. When Jan and Feb come and the snows are bad I usually put out 50lbs a day. Last year I put out about 3500lbs of corn.

 

[Rob-F]

Very nice. I like shooting them with a camera, not a gun.

 

[gb hill]

Looks like also all the deer are does! No bucks...go figure!😀

 

[Patman]

They are just too beautiful to kill, everytime I hear a shot fired i cringe, I think they are all mine. In the last year the does have been bring their babies here and showing them to us.

 

[Patman]

Looks like also all the deer are does! No bucks...go figure!😀

It's very rare we get a buck here but last week we had one with a huge rack, looked like a 12 pointer.

 

[Patman]

Here are some shots from last year.

 

[Patman]

a couple more. We often had ten to 20 but at one time 2 years ago we had 30 of them, it looked like they were playing football.

 

[ornate_wrasse]

Here are some shots from last year.

I love shot # 3, the one on the right side. Excellent!

Good use of the 135 focal length!

Ellen

 

[smile]

deers are good)

 

[ferider]

Where I live you can almost touch them. Not fun when you own several big dogs and let them out at night .... Also, they eat everything. My wife once lost a complete chili plant, with fruit .... And they have ticks and fleas - lots of them.

This is the type of Californian Mule Deer that lives in our neighborhood.

(taken in the wild in Yosemite).

Roland.

 

[ampguy]

we have these nearby, the white tailed ones, about 10:1 doe to male, and were tracking some who left deep snow tracks, with cameras. The one below was taken last summer at Glacier Natl. Park though:

 

[Patman]

The only ones we see up here are the white tails. We've never had a problem with the deer eating our plants, I guess it's because I always leave food out for them.

 

[hlockwood]

They are eating Corn, I put out about 25lbs of corn everyday, all Winter. In the Spring I still get a few coming around but not to many. When Jan and Feb come and the snows are bad I usually put out 50lbs a day. Last year I put out about 3500lbs of corn.

Yikes, 3500 lbs of corn? Do you grow it or...

Harry

 

[35mmdelux]

Deer used to come to our front lawn in Monterey, CA, to munch on whatever was growing there. Occasionally a bobcat or fox would be seen. It was an amazing site given that I grew up in the city.

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

OMG they are so beautiful, how nice eyes!

Which lens do you use? 135mm?

 

[40oz]

They are just too beautiful to kill, everytime I hear a shot fired i cringe, I think they are all mine. In the last year the does have been bring their babies here and showing them to us.

I like deer too, but it's a mistake to pretend they are little humans in deer outfits. They are wild animals, not cuddly pets.

They are not "showing you their babies." Fawns follow their mother until they are old enough to survive on their own. You've taught their mother that there is free food in your yard. Far easier than foraging, which is what the mother *should* have been teaching the fawn.

I personally have an issue with your misguided feeding. It's selfish to feed deer so you can look at them, and dishonest to claim it's to help them make it through the winter. What you are doing is unnatural and unhealthy for the deer. They aren't your pets. They will make it through the winter far better than a human could, without your free corn.

I hunt deer in the fall because humans have removed the natural predators. It's a civic duty. I cannot understand the mindset of a person who thinks it is good to feed deer out of a bin in their yard under a light so they can watch and take pictures from the comfort of their living room, but complains when other people are outside in the fields and woods, meeting deer in their own territory and acting as the predator that nature has always coupled with a grazer.

I understand your intentions, but the result isn't what you think. Why don't you go hiking through the woods near your house instead? You will learn how to see them in the wild.

Please stop feeding the wild animals.