Portraits of Mule Deer in Willows

Pair of Mule Deer in willows – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I haven’t photographed Mule Deer in a while so when I saw a pair of them in willows next to a creek last week I felt I had to take their photos, especially because of all the lush greenery that surrounded them. I was up in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains and it is so, so much greener up there than down in the valley where the hot temps have already dried up most of the grasses.

This pair of Muleys came into view and because they were close I decided to leave my teleconverter on and take portraits of the deer. Both deer seemed curious and instead of moving away they moved towards the vehicle.

Mule Deer doe in willows – Nikon D500, f8, 1/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

When the doe was separated from the buck I was able to take a series of photos that showed off her very large ears, her eye lashes and her deep brown eyes, they are so dark that her eyes almost look black.  She stands out so well from the green of the willows in the background.

Young Mule Deer buck in the willows – Nikon D500, f9, 1/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I laughed out loud when I saw the sideways look I appeared to be getting from the young Mule Deer Buck on my computer monitor at home. I liked this photo so much that I used it to make a birthday card for my grandson Luke who celebrated his birthday on Friday and placed the words “Happy Birthday Deer Luke” to the right of the buck’s face.

It was fun to have these Mule Deer in my viewfinder for a few minutes, I would have liked to have photographed them for a longer period of time but a noisy diesel pickup rumbled by and made a racket which scared the deer up and over a hill.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Mule Deer photos plus facts and information about this species.