Marty’s photo of the day #4820: I photographed this mule deer in the American Prairie earlier this month. Even though this is a beautiful deer, I often pass up deer portraits, because they aren’t all that exciting. In this instance, however, what was exciting was that the shot actually turned out. Deb and I were at the tail end of a night drive, where we were out looking for coyotes and the owner of the grizzly bear tracks we found earlier in the day. It was so dark out that I could barely see the deer—and it was far away. I cranked the ISO up to 6400 and used a 400 mm zoom and a 1.4 extender. None of my previous cameras would have stood a chance, but my less-than-a-year-old Canon R50 worked almost like the eyes of a nocturnal animal and lightened the scene. Best of all the colors stayed true, and there was very little noise. Cameras keep getting better and better! And, of course, I’m always trying to improve my photographic techniques.
Photographed in the American Prairie (formerly the American Prairie Reserve), Montana.