My second time going to this Longueuil Regional Park called Michel-Chartrand hoping to capture some deer with my camera.
First time was on a busy Sunday afternoon and there was way too many people for any deer to venture out of their hidden place.
I then decided to go on a week day as early as possible, after the kids left for school.
I took a small trail leading in the heart of the woods and if I wasn't paying attention, I would never have seen them. 10 of them, all laying down in the snow. I talked to them with a gentle voice the whole time I was there, slowly approaching them. Of course they all stood up one at the time, with no hurry though. One of them, a young one, even dared to make a few steps in my direction.
All these were taken with a 50 mm lens and there was very little cropping done.
The light snow falling made this moment a very magical one that I will never forget!

how the heck did you get so close to them?

the last one is super cute. too bad the background is so boring, kinda lowers the artistic value, but still really nice finds and good shots

wow, beautiful photos!

lmao Marie that 3rd one is awesome
he was licking his chops, because he was getting ready to eat you

This post was edited by mikeyp1122 on Jan 28 2011 08:15am

Awesome pictures Marie. The first one is my favorite.

awwww! thats just so sweet!
very well taken Marie

such nice photos

Beautiful pics!!!!!!

I have that same question... how did you get so close!

The shots are great, can't believe there's so many deer in the one shot!

The 'horde' were lying about 15-20 meters from the trail I was on.
They were well hidden but I was so looking for deers that even lying down I saw them...
While I was walking I was kinda whistling to a couple of chickadees harassing me for food..
I kept on whistling same as the little birds and the birds were following me from branch to branch, and I was also talking in a very soft voice, approaching very slowly with many pauses.
The one in the first picture was the closest to me at first and even made a few steps in my direction, keeping a safe distance of 5 meters (15 feet).
Never did I sense fear from them, their tails always keeping low, although they didn't stay lying down at my approach.

At one point 2 women passed by on the same trail I took to find the deer, they were talking loud and never noticed us. The deers seemed to be more worried about them then about me.
I took over 100 pictures, playing with the settings as I went, cause some pictures I had to overexpose to get the deer nicely exposed.
I am unsure how long I stayed with them, but time had just stopped...
Very magical and peaceful...