The story actually starts early in the morning when we glassed these bucks up and put the sneak on them, only to lose them in some thick trees without ever snapping a picture.  To say we were disappointed would be a great understatement.  I cant speak for my brother but I was physically sick!  We knew they were great bucks and we knew we had missed a golden opportunity that may never present itself again. 

Later this same day, after the morning deer looking was over, we could be found sulking around camp thinking about how close we were to getting some shots of some great looking bucks and how the odds of the opportunity presenting itself again were slim to none.  Eventually late morning gave way to late afternoon and late afternoon gave way to evening and we again hit the road to try and find some deer to photograph.  We drove all over the place and couldn’t find a thing to get excited about.  We even took the kids and went for several small hikes and glassed hard and still nothing.  With the last of the photographing light fading my brother and I decided to take the kids and run down to where we had lost the herd of big bucks earlier in the day and take a look on the off chance the deer didn’t run as far as we thought they did and they would still be hanging out in the same area.

Imagine our surprise and astonishment when we rounded a corner very near where we had lost the deer earlier in the day and there they were!  The same bucks form the morning and they were almost in the same exact spot.  We quickly set up the camera and readied everything to try some photos in the low light.  I turned back just before we started shooting and glanced at the kids.  What I saw was priceless, the usually rowdy, way to loud bunch of kids were frozen perfectly still and not making a peep.  They were just staring at us and the bucks.  They were in awe and remained motionless and silent the entire time we were shooting.  It was an awesome experience to photograph this caliber of buck with all my kiddos in tow.  I know they thought seeing these bucks was pretty special and I know my little son saw them because he spent a good part of the next day running around with sticks held up to his head asking me to take his picture.  I think he figured out how to get my attention. 

These aren’t the sharpest pictures we have ever taken because the light was incredibly low as we were shooting.  Actually, it is really quite incredible the pictures turned out as well as they did.  Hope you all enjoy them as much as we enjoyed taking them and stay tuned because next I plan to post the big buck that we were lucky enough to photograph.

From the apex of a small hill we could see that the biggest and the second biggest bucks had bedded under a burnt out log and we thought if we could get around behind the log and slowly sneak in on them that way we may have a chance.  The unknown was the smallest of the bucks, we had no idea where he was and we knew we could jump him at any time and that would be the end of the sneak and the day.  We hastily made our way to a point we could approach the log from the back and started a painstakingly slow stalk.  With the sun dropping and with it the light, we crested a small hill that allowed us to see the log the deer were bedded under.  As we as we krept closer the back side of the log we could see the antlers of the bigger buck sticking up over the log.  It was a thrill to put a sneak on, always knowing that the buck was still there.  As we got closer and closer our smiles grew and grew.  Once we were about 20 yards away I set up the tripod and camera and tested the lighting.  Once this was complete I signaled my brother to move closer and see if he could stand the deer up without startling them out of the area. 

It only took several minutes for my brother to be within 5 feet of touching the deers antlers.  Here he stopped and started trying to make any little noise he could to stand the deer up.  The plan worked perfectly, we watched as the bigger bucks antlers started turning from side to side trying to figure out what was up.  After a few seconds both bucks stood up and began to look around.  I started snapping photos as my brother lay hidden on the other side of the log, concealed from their searching gaze.  I remember wishing I had a smaller lens with me to get the deer looking right over my brother who was hiding mere feet from them.  We were super excited with the way the photos turned out.  The bucks aren’t necessarily wall hangers but the colors are nice and even small bucks are better than nothing on a long day of scouting around.

While this buck is by no means the biggest I have ever photographed it is one of the more fun ones I have chased around.  It was a blast to make trip after trip to try and close the gap on him.  He was very challenging to get close to and the experience of snapping this photo was one of the biggest rushes I have ever experienced. 

My buddy actually scoped the Black Velvet at about a half mile away and we watched him for several hours waiting for him to bed down.  When he finally bedded in a small canyon he did so in a perfect location for a sneak.  My buddy stayed with the scope and watched as I snuck clear around the buck and back up to the draw where he was sleeping.  When I was within several hundred yards of the draw he was in, I slipped of my shoes, snapped a few test photos to adjust my camera settings, and began the slowest creep of  my life.  My buddy later said that he never thought I was going to get to the edge of that draw.  When I was within a few feet of looking over the edge down onto the buck I had to just lay for several minutes, breathe deep, and calm my nerves.  Once my composure was regained I peered over the edge to see this  buck sound asleep approximately 30 feet below me.  With shaking hands I began to snap.  I snapped the first photo and the sound of the shutter rang in my ears like a fire cracker but to my surprise the buck didn’t even flinch.  Once I saw that he wasn’t going to spook at the sound of the shutter I started snapping as fast as I could focus.  In fact I lay there in the dirt and photographed this buck for about 45 minutes.  In order to get the buck to move without spooking him I would scrape a small rock against a boulder laying next to me, each time I did this he would perk up and look with interest toward the sound.  By scraping the rock every so often I was able to snap over 200 photos of  this buck, from every angle imaginable.  I knew the shoot had been a success when I was able to sneak back out of the draw without spooking the deer.  Once back away from the edge I returned to my shoes and just sat with a huge smile on my face, and an incredible sense of accomplishment.  I couldnt quite fathom what had just happened, it wasn’t until I got back to my buddy and we were reviewing the photos that I started to understand what had just transpired.  It was a rush to blast back down the roads towards town to show my brother that we had finally got some exceptional shots of Black Velvet.  Eventually the three of us sat in my brothers office and analyzed each picture one by one and grinned from ear to ear.  It was the perfect culmination to one of the greatest photographing summers I have experienced.

I’d been seeing a neat looking wide racked buck in a basin I liked to hunt. Unfortunately I had a hard time stalking him within photo range. I wanted some decent shots so I kept visiting the basin each morning of my hunt. This particular basin sits on the southeast flank of the mountain, so it’s a great morning light type of photo area.

My persistence was rewarded on a beautiful clear morning when I came around a ridge towards the basin and saw two sets of antlers, the wide buck and a nice four point.

I couldn’t have asked for a better photo setup, the bucks were slightly above me in great light. A short stalk, and enough curiosity and confusion on the part of these pretty bucks allowed me to take some of my favorite velvet buck shots.

One year later I encountered the same scenario while trying to find and photograph big velvet bucks; however locating and stalking a good buck close enough to photograph was more difficult. I kept glassing a big buck in the same basin I’d shot the wide buck in the previous year, and again my initial attempts to get close to the deer failed. This particular basin is a good place to find deer, but the oak brush makes staking them quite a challenge. While glassing, I located this great looking typical buck. The big buck was feeding with six or eight other bucks, as usual they were in an area that didn’t look very promising for a stalk, but I had to try anyway. Actually, I tried several stalks on the feeding bucks, bad attempts in the noisy brush, each time I had to tell myself there was no hurry. I decided the best thing to do would be to back off and watch them, maybe I could form a better plan. I watched the deer feeding for awhile and figured they might end up on the east rim of the basin. Without any other ideas I hurried to the place were I thought I’d be in the bucks path. I picked a spot for an ambush with a couple decent shooting lanes, got my camera set up and hoped for the best.

The first deer on the scene wore wide velvet covered antlers and he was feeding right towards me! Words cannot describe the immense feeling of excitement that comes from being in the right place at the right time, it just dosn’t happen to me often enough that I will ever get used to it. At this point I needed to stay steady until the shooting stopped, I did stay steady enough to capture these images of a great buck, but just barely.

This buck looked allot like the wide three by four from the previous year, but without any telling signature points it was hard to say. I wasn’t sure if it was the same buck or not until I looked closer at the photos of him from both years and saw what looks like a scar above his left eye.

I love seeing the same big wild bucks several years running, it is a real testament to these great animals.

Thanks goes out the the rancher who shared his tucked away water hole with us, (your secret is safe with us). We ended up seeing 5 or six other bucks in the area but were unable to photograph any of them.