Deer in the Olympics

This doe was with her fawn on the Hurricane Hill Trail at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The deer there are very tolerant of people and will often pass close by on the trail as it runs along the top of the ridge. I decided to take a couple of head shots of this doe, one with her shadowed by a hill and with a backdrop of trees, and the other where she stepped a little to the right and into the sunlight. These pictures were taken a minute apart, and even though she only moved a few feet, the difference in light gives each picture its own mood. I like her pose better in the shaded picture, and also that the green background really brings out her whiskers.

I nearly had a beautiful headshot of a fawn a few minutes later right as the sun was setting, I had seen a doe and her two fawns walking near the trail and waited to see if they would cross the trail. They did, and one of the fawns looked directly at me in the beautiful light, but it ended up being closer to me than expected and I had the wrong lens mounted on the camera. By the time I switched lenses the moment was gone.

This buck on Hurricane Ridge was lagging behind several other deer when a large biting fly began hassle it. At first the buck tried casually moving his head and neck, then biting the air trying to catch it as seen in the first picture. When that failed, it eventually decided it was time to leave and bolted off after the other deer. These pictures were taken in June, so his antlers are still growing.