Up Close: SNP Whitetail

As those of you who follow Country Captures already know Shenandoah National Park is my favorite destination for photographing mature rutting whitetails. The excellent population of mature whitetails acclimated to human presence and that it’s only a three hour drive makes it an excellent destination for a day trip.

Normally I will not approach closely enough to invade an animal’s personal space and instead use a suitable telephoto lens to capture the image. In this case I was doing just that until the doe that he was following ran very close to my position with him in pursuit. After closing the distance rapidly he paused momentarily before racing on giving me this beautiful portrait.

Surprisingly the buck looks very calm in the photo although he was anything but calm frantically following the doe and running after other bucks who were attempting to cut in on the breeding activity.