Sunday, January 31, 2010

Troy Nature Center Buck

I posted this photograph of a non-typical whitetail deer buck with a drop-tine antler on November 24, 2009. It was taken in the woods at the Troy Nature Center where I occasionally will hike. I just heard about the controversy surrounding the killing of a buck in December that may be the same deer as in this photo. Notice the very distinctive curved drop-tine off his right antler. An amateur photographer has posted many good photos of this buck and it appears to be the same animal that was killed by a person who claims he killed it while hunting. There is no hunting allowed in the Nature Center, obviously, so many people are wondering whether this animal was poached at night. This buck had been seen regularly by many visitors to the park up until December 21 or so. Then it disappeared and hasn't been seen since.
There is an article about this ongoing investigation in the February edition of WOODS-N-WATER NEWS that includes photos, plus some online forums such as Michigan Sportsman.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Whitetail deer calendars

We have two new calendars featuring our photographs of whitetail deer. These have been added to the others at our Cafe Press product sales site. Our favorite images of deer are continually collected and then periodically assembled into calendars. The new ones feature some nice shots of fawns in addition to the does and bucks.
Copy and paste this address to view Vol. 2:
http://www.cafepress.com/digitaloutdoors.427091962

Copy and paste this address to view Vol. 3:
http://www.cafepress.com/digitaloutdoors.427182035

There are some duck calendars, too, in a different section of the store.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Flickr photo site

We now have an account on the Flickr site. Flickr is hugely popular and most of you are probably already familiar with it. Great search capability. We will still maintain and update our sales-oriented site at Zenfolio but will now also be uploading content to Flickr as new images are created.
All of you are welcome to become a "contact" to receive notice of new photographs being posted. Use this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danteetorphotography/
The link is also in the column on the right side of this page. Hope to see you!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Mallard duck finding sunlight.

This photograph captures a mallard duck as he descends into a creek. The unusual lighting makes it special and I was pretty excited to get the shot. The late afternoon sun was very low. The creek bank opposite me is high so it was in deep shade. There was no bank where I was positioned and I could be near water level. A proper exposure on the duck's head leaves the creek bank very underexposed with hardly any detail except for some patches of snow. It's really neat that the head is lit and the white tips of the tail feathers show so nicely.
100 to 400mm lens set at about 325mm. The exposure is tricky but also the focus. A rapidly descending bird is hard enough to follow in a clear sky but this area has trees in addition to the creek bank. Most of my shots from that position were not usable at all because it was so difficult to maintain focus and properly expose.
http://danteetor.zenfolio.com/p169605239/e1b5f59a4#h1b5f59a4

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Sneaking Whitetail Deer Buck

What luck! I had been shadowing this whitetail deer buck for a good part of the morning. I was getting some interesting shots but as I tried to get closer he saw me and left. I then found a group of does and was busy working towards them when the same buck came over a ridge following the doe trail. He was very close! And so intent on the does that he paid little attention to me as I remained motionless.
400mm lens at less than 25 yards. Open hardwoods in the winter so the light was pretty nice.