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Friendly Face

Seth Topham — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:31:40 +0000

Thought I would throw this photo up; not a big animal but its a nice clear photo.

Close Encounter

Seth Topham — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:01:03 +0000

No great story on this buck, just a buck I found from the road that seemed to want his photo taken. The buck is kind of unique in that it has two eye guards on each side, two eye guards is not in itself strange but the location of the second ones on this particular buck is strange. My brother, buddy and I found the left antler off this buck when shed season rolled around, unfortunately he had broke that second eye guard off by the the time he dropped. We found the antler about a mile from where I snapped this photo.

Just Your Typical Monster

Seth Topham — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:40:36 +0000

Thanks goes out to a local rancher for this photo. We have photographed many big bucks in this general area but were having difficulty finding any real big ones this year because of the very dry conditions. Most of the water we photographed on last year is dry this year so we were scrambling to find something to take a picture of. That’s when we spoke with a local rancher and asked him if he knew of any water we could try to photograph deer on. I don’t know if it was the fact that we had my 8, 6, and 3 year old with us or we sounded defeated, which ever the case, he had pity on us and gave us some cryptic directions to a water hole tucked away deep on his property. Later that evening found us trying to follow the ranchers instructions to locate the water. Finally we were able to find the water and to our surprise it looked as if no one had been down the road to the water in a very long time. We investigated the water closer and my brother immediately yelled out that he had found a monster track. According to the tracks in the area the water was being pounded by deer. We made a plan to return in the morning to see if we could see the deer that made the huge track. We returned early in the morning and visited the water hole only to see two does feeding along a tree line. Disappointed, we turned to head back to another area we had seen some bucks in the day before. We had only back tracked about a quarter mile when we saw a small buck feeding in some buck brush. We stopped and began photographing the buck when, to our surprise, this incredible 4 point stepped out from behind a patch of thick vegetation. Unfortunately when I saw the size of him i began to tremble with excitement making it difficult to keep the camera stable. We did manage to get a few good shots as, to our surprise, the buck fed closer and closer to our location. Eventually, after many photographs, the buck spooked and trotted over a hill, leaving us to reflect on the incredible experience.

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.

Battle Tested

Seth Topham — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:34:11 +0000

Had an awesome experience photographing this guy. I was up at 4:30 AM and headed out to try for a few photos before work. I glassed from a few locations but wasn’t seeing much, so I sat on a good vantage point and let the sun continue its slow rise. As I scanned the area i saw this guy feeding at about one thousand yards out. He was feeding toward me and moving along a trail I have watched sheep move down many times before so when the ram went down into a canyon i scurried to get set up behind a small buck brush. From the seclusion of the bush I could watch a good distance down the trail. I sat for about 10 minuets when this guy popped over the hill headed down the trail right toward me. I began snapping as he slowly moved ever closer. The wind was in my favor and allowed me to go undetected until the ram was too close to photograph with my bigger lens. Once the ram moved to a point where he was down wind, he instantly became alert and started making snort and bleating noises. Within seconds his nose alerted him to the danger and he wheeled around and within a few bounds was headed down the cliffs. From this experience I am again reminded of the importance of knowing the behavior of your subject and the importance of patience but still the greatest component of getting good photos is good old fashioned luck.