Photo of the day

Earlier in the day my wife and I had hiked through this section of woods and I scared up an Elk but did not have my camera ready.  In the afternoon I went back for another round of hiking and had my camera out and ready in this same stretch of woods.  On my right side I saw 4 mule deer start to move and I figured that they would cross the path in front of me.  I had my camera ready and got the shot, but the exposure was a bit dark.  I could see the deer standing off to my left and I changed the settings and increased the ISO so that I could maybe get a better shot.

Little did I know that one of them would stop in the light and wait to see what I would do next.

I did what I always do in this kind of case, I keep on shooting, actually holding the camera low because I have an articulating screen and I had tilted it up.

Although you can make out the outline and part of the face of a second deer on the edge of this image, I actually had no idea that I had captured the two of them in the next photo.

This entire little incident reminded me once again of the quote by Pasteur.  “In matters of observation, chance favors the prepared mind.”

The first time I hiked, there was no favor, as I was totally unprepared.

The second time, even though I left my big lenses home and only had my hiking camera with me, it still had a sufficient telephoto that enabled me to get the shot.  Right time, right place, right equipment and a deer that stopped to pose and then was joined by one of his group.  That’s a lot of luck there, but I’ll take what I can get.