Mark Diaz  

Watering Hole by Mark Diaz

February 2021 - Watering Hole

About the Image(s)

While hiking around Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park Montana, we jumped a young buck drinking from a watering hole. I was able to get off a few quick shots before he got wind of us a promptly left. I was shooting from the dark shade of a tree line into bright late morning light, the subject was at about 90 yards. This was in the first week of September and he was in velvet. In the next few weeks he will scrape off the velvet to expose his hard fully formed antlers for the upcoming fall rut.

I captured this image with a Canon EOS 7D and Canon EF100-400mm lens. This image is right out of camera, crop was the only post processing.
Exposure: 1/1000 at f/5.0
Focal Length: 390mm
ISO: 250

This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted

Judy Haran   Judy Haran
He's looking right at you. Good catch, love the glint in his eye. Maybe I would try a slight vignette top and bottom to send the focus straight in to his face. I played in Topaz Studio 2 to add the vignette. Hope you don't mind.   Posted: 02/14/2021 10:51:22
Comment Image
Mark Diaz   Mark Diaz
Thank you Judy for the great suggestion. The vignette make a big difference.   Posted: 02/23/2021 20:27:46
Sarita Yeola   Sarita Yeola
What a beautiful animal! Great photograph, the entire animal is sharp, you have the catch in its eyes. I would suggest making a tighter crop at the top and bottom.   Posted: 02/14/2021 14:34:10
Mark Diaz   Mark Diaz
Thank you for the kind comments and suggestion.   Posted: 02/23/2021 20:40:03
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
Beautiful animal and I've seen deer in velvet in person (we used to have a herd in our yard year round) and never seen it captured in an image. It really comes out realistic in the shot. Composition is fantastic with the dear looking to the left so plenty of room for his gaze and it allowed you to keep much of the frame about him! I liked the vignette it really does focus your attention on the face. Nice image!   Posted: 02/17/2021 13:32:54
Mark Diaz   Mark Diaz
Thank you Sherry. For as beautiful as they are they sure reek havoc on my landscape.   Posted: 02/23/2021 20:44:02