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I get a call the afternoon of June 30, that there are lots of baby deer over at Desoto Bend Wildlife refuge right now. So that evening, I set out to see them. It's only 6 miles away and I had nothing else to do anyway, so it was a no brainer. Before I could get in the gate, I see two babies and a parent. I took some stills, but they aren't that great. I already have too many to put on here, so that's why you don't see them first here. I drive the whole length of the place, without seeing another deer. I take one of the small roads to the lake to see if any birds are around and found a ton of these Canadian Geese.
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After a brief stop with the geese I drove back to the main gravel road. It was there I found all the deer out in the field. Here's a buck who ran off shortly after this shot.
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This is that same "funny" buck. Real funny these guys were. All day and the next day, I'd drive slowly, looking for them in the trees, only to look in my rearview mirror to see one standing in the road looking at me. Over and over that happened. Well, they think they are funny enough that they can stick their tongues out. Just look at this guy. He can't just take off, he has to stick out his tongue as he does so.
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Here's another funny guy, appearing onto the road from where I just "covered". They couldn't just stay hidden and be happy they were messing with me, no, they had to top it off by popping out after I was passed, so that they'd know I knew.
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Well I have news for them. Two can play at this game. My zoom lens and I can be just as sneaky if we want to be. Gotcha!
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I'm not sure why I labled this image as one from July 1, as it is not. I shot several of these back near the lake. That bird isn't flapping, it's just standing there holding its wings out like that, drying them off I guess. While sitting there I noticed a white car coming up behind me. It was my sister and her daughter. I had no idea they were over there again. What is more strange is she gets a call as she pulls up. It was from my parents, who were the people sitting at a table just down the road, lol. I noticed three people there(uncle was with them), and they said they noticed me, but weren't sure it was me till my sister pulled up. That was rather strange, as none of us knew any of the others would be there. We don't go over there that often. Heck probably been a year since my parents have been there. Then we all wind up at this same spot at the same time. Strange.
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I sent fellow chaser from Blair, Bob Matzen, an e-mail about the deer before I left, since I knew he has a camera and likes to shoot around too. I guess he said later that he was on his way over when he checked his e-mail one last time, seeing the one I sent about Desoto and the baby deer. That would have been even more odd, had he pulled up sooner on that same road. So I leave one of the areas and see him drive by. We wind up out by the entrance as the sun was getting lower. Someone honks as they come up behind us. Maybe someone else known? Got me. If not, they are idiots for feeling the need to honk there, with us pulled off on the grass. Nothing like trying to photograph deer than someone HONKING!
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Fast forward to the following morning, July 1st.
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Ok, so the day before, my mom had heard the mention of fog in the forecast, for the following morning. I checked the NWS latest forecast online and saw no mention of fog for here. It's been dry and cool, with that system stuck over the south. The deep juice was not far south, into KS. The ridge was supposed to slip east and allow for the moisture to begin returning. I thought maybe it would cool off first, then that deeper moisture would arrive by morning, and we'd have fog in the morning. The trouble was, the sunrise time being before 6 a.m......ouch. I woke up at noon this day and sleeping early enough was not happening. So instead of sleeping by 2 a.m. like normal, I said screw it, and I'd just stay up till dawn. I checked surface obs over night and it was quite clear that deeper moisture was not going to get here by morning. One hope left for fog.......cold temps and steam forming off the warmer waters. I did not think this was very likely, on the first of July. I'd forgotten what time it was, I look outside, and it's already lighting up some, 30 minutes before sunrise. Crap. I look at obs again and see low 50s in western IA, with even a couple 52 degree readings. Dang I thought. I hurry up and fly out the door, still not expecting fog, but just going to shoot those birds on the water at sunrise, and then any deer or baby deer I could find. The above was one of the many cool fog scenes near the lake. I love it when you can see the sheets like that.
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The gate opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes after sunset. I was a bit late, with only 15 minutes left till sunrise when I got there. I always underestimate the amount of time it takes to get to the lake area, once you are in the gate. My biggest goal at the moment was gettting to the lake, where I shot those birds on the logs in the water. I think they were some form of Heron. I wanted to shoot them in the fog. It sucked that the area I saw them the night before, was pretty much the furtherst drive to get to. Add in I was later than I could have been, I was in a huge hurry to get there. It was eating away at me, how I was having to pass up all these cooler fog scenes. I stopped just long enough to get one click of this above scene. Not being able to set up a tripod(time), I really didn't think I'd be able to hold it still enough, in the pre-dawn light, and my slow 100-400L. The story of this morning was a lot of luck, mostly in regards to camera settings and holding it still enough......as well as what I get for what I was looking for(they weren't the same, that's for sure).
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So I get to the road, that leads to the water and the birds. The sun would start to rise above the horizon in the next 5 minutes. One problem, another scene getting in the way! This deer was standing at the end of the road, begging to be photograhped. I stop, lean out my window, and wonder how on Earth am I going to hold this lens still enough. With the metering point on him my shutter was 1/10 a second. Even with IS on, that's just too slow at almost 400mm. So I was missing my birds at sunrise, in the fog, on something I wasn't sure I could even shoot anyway. I opted to put my metering point on the brighter rock road(just barely brighter, I'm under a line of trees in pre-dawn light). This would at least keep the shutter up some. I honestly didn't think I had enough time to flip to manual and mess with the exposure that way. I knew by looking at the shutter speed and the scene it would probably work to put it on the rocks(keeping the brighter water outside of this tree area closer to the highlight side, where it should be, without going over). It gave me 1/40 instead of 1/10 anyway! Woohoo, lol. 1/40 is still quite slow for 365mm. I think by this shot I was holding the lens up against the side of my car door as I leaned out the window, facing the same direction as the car. I was at 1600 ISO already, so there was no upping that to help matters.
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Here is one with the metering point more on him, which gave me 1/15 at F5.6, 1600 ISO. This time I was at 235mm though. Normally the hand holding rule is the reciprocal of the focal length. I think that is for something with a normal crop factor of 1x, not 1.6x like on the DSLR I use. So the reciprocal of 235mm is 1/235. But on this 1.6x camera that length is more like 376mm(1.6 x 235). So that says when I'm using a focal length(zoom length) like the one I used here, I shouldn't try to handhold anything under 1/376 a second. Yet here I am down at 1/15. Thank god for IS(image stabilization) as anything nearly this sharp would not be possible while hand holding the shot. His head is a bit soft as he's moving a bit, plus yeah, 1/15 is too slow for even IS use at this distance.
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After a couple minutes he finally feels the need to walk into the trees. This shot is now down to 1/10 and at 300mm. All I know is the day the IS on this lens fails, is the day I'm going to be very sad. So the deer moves on and I can finally get to what I'd been driving to, the Heron's on their log, in the fog! One problem. No birds! Arrrrrggh. So much for that idea and all the scenes I blew off to get there in time.
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I leave the lake with nothing on it, looking to shoot fog scenes back to the west. I get to where they have the road closed and have to flip around. As I do so, doing a 3 point turn(ok 5 points) I see a deer right off the road in the trees. It was close. I was like, crap a deer in the trees. Then I was like, crap a deer with a bird on its butt! The bird was walking along its back and the deer simply didn't care. I thought I was hosed at getting a good shot, as I was now parked sideways on the gravel road, facing the deer. I had no time to look at the camera and see what I was all set on, if focus was manual now, if IS was still on, etc. I simply picked it up, flipped it to AV and pointed, making sure to just snap whatever I had real quick, before it flew away. I'm glad I did that, as the bird did not give me any more time to get something good. He flew off less than a second after I pushed the shutter. Here is why this initial grab is soft. 310mm at 1/25 second, done quickly. Here is a better reason, ISO had been switched to 400 just before this. Guessing if I was on 1600 it wouldn't be so soft and blury. I think the focus point was ahead of him on the grass too. I would have done better had I been given the chance. But still am glad I grabbed it, swung around, pointed and shot first.
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There's no water over there, that's just fog.
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After the water let down, I flew back from where I came, hoping to get some fog scene in this one cool area(the area with the moon above). Instead I saw this, looking the opposite direction from there.
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After shooting the steam off the lake in the rising sun, I wondered if I could find some fog rays. I thought a good option for this might be the trail near the visitor center at the entrance. This was on the way there. Notice the little rabbit on the road too.
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There's one thing about steam fog, it usually doesn't last that long. I figured it being July, it would last an even shorter amount of tmie. So I was in hurry mode still, knowing I was losing for by the second. I literally run for the trail. There's a small bridge close to the beginning of the 7/8 mile trail. If there is one thing I suck at, it is shooting flying birds at close range over the water. I've seen ducks near this bridge many times and pretty much thought they'd be there. I didn't care, I knew I'd screw it up anyway and so I kept running, not slowing down before I got there. To my surprise no ducks, but a ton of geese. I stopped and gave it a go, as they flew/swam under me towards the lake. I consider the above pretty lucky, that it is at all sharp. I think it's because they were so close and stirring up the water so much, that the normal autofocu issue wasn't there(it had lots to lock onto). Normally I am screwing up while trying to keep manually focusing one bird in flight, at a somewhat close distance.
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One more very quick snap as I continued my run. You can see the geese in the lower left.
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So far all I'm seeming to find are things I'm not looking for. Why stop now, I guess. I'm now literally running down this rock trail. There's one small area you can get out to the reeds and water. It was about half way down there. My fog through the trees idea was toast here. I heard some birds and thought I'd get them in the fog out there. I run until I need to catch my breath(I'm out of shape). The second I stop I see the above. The lake and sun are to the left. I did a hand to forehead that this deer did not hear me running down the rocks. Other than the birds, it was very quiet in there. I don't think it is possible this deer was not hearing impaired. He soon walks slowly out of the shot, behind the tree/s. I thought, well maybe he heard me and his just slowly walking away. So I try to neak up, and get closer yet.
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I walk along and can't see him anywhere. I kept walking, making plenty of noise on the darn rocks(too bad they can't pave everything in there, even the gravel roads make lots of noise). Finally I give up, wondering how on Earth he snuck away through all the trees without me seeing him. I was briefly impressed by this idea. Then bam, he's right there! The above is not cropped. He's only like 15-20 feet away and has no idea I'm standing there. He has to be deaf.
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So I'm standing there, not making a noise now. He picks his head up and looks right a bit, then slowly looks back around to the left. He wasn't doing it like he heard anything, but just looking around. His eye movement and expression was priceless when he saw me. They got real big and were moving around real fast, but generally looking right at me. It also seemed like you could see a twitching or maybe the vein in his neck ramping up. It was just an oh crap moment for him. He let me get a very fast 4 shots or so, before he bolted into the trees. I'm 100% certain he had no clue I was there till he turned his head.
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I walk down to the water near those reeds, only to see the water is all the way into them now. So much for that idea, without any sort of boot on. I continue down the trail and see this guy seeing me. He bolted fast.
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I sat on a bench in there, thinking I could get some close shots as deer came back in from the fields. I saw nothing and left. The above was taken from the road. That thing is tiny. It's the size of a very small dog.
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Momma deer telling me to please leave her young alone.
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Here is a cropped in version.
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My shooting enthusiasm was dwindling fast by this point, still not having gone to bed yet.
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My account writing is dwindling fast now, as I feel like I'm still behind on sleep. This guy was seen on the way out. I tried to get him to turn and look at me, but he was having none of it.
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