{"id":1463,"date":"2011-07-26T15:25:05","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T20:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2011-07-28T09:38:46","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:38:46","slug":"1463","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/26\/1463\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with the Summer Heat!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photographers,\u00a0the hummingbird photography workshop begins in\u00a0seven weeks?\u00a0 Did you know this is going to be a great opportunity for you to get some of the best bird photographs you could ever hope for?\u00a0 Three slots are open and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.\u00a0\u00a0When I get your deposit, you are officially booked for the workshop.\u00a0 So,\u00a0move on over to the photo tour schedule on this web site, read about the workshop, and\u00a0email or call me\u00a0to register.\u00a0 I look forward to\u00a0showing you how\u00a0it is done.<\/p>\n

The heat wave has driven a lot of us\u00a0underground for most of the summer.\u00a0 Although I’ve been\u00a0chilling in front of the computer during most of June and July,\u00a0I did get out last week to\u00a0check on\u00a0the fawn crop.\u00a0 You\u00a0probably know that\u00a0white-tailed deer breed rather late in south Texas, so a lot of the fawns aren’t born until June and July.\u00a0\u00a0There were a lot of fawns out there on\u00a0Friday morning, but it was so hot that the mamma deer are taking their babies to\u00a0the shade about 20 minutes after the sun comes up.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I got a few keeper shots to show you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, I\u00a0looked for fawns a little later in the summer and found some buck deer with nice, velvety antlers at the same time.\u00a0 It has taken me a year to get around to working on those photos, so I have two batches of\u00a0deer photographs to share with you this week.<\/p>\n

Click on the right side of each photo to go from one photo to the next.\u00a0 This also will cause the photos to open into a larger, sharper format.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Doe<\/a>
Doe and fawn white-tailed deer at sunrise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This doe was on her way to the shade just a few minutes after sunrise.\u00a0 The photo was taken with a Canon 1D Mark III and Canon 100-400 mm lens from the window of my\u00a0Durango.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being\u00a0aware that the heat and high humidity could cause condensation on the lenses, I had reduced the amount of air conditioning in the car during my 90 minute drive to deer country.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough.\u00a0 My 500 mm lens was so fogged up, it was an hour before I got the glass clear enough to shoot.\u00a0 You can guess where the deer were by then.\u00a0 So, the lesson for all of us is that during the winter or summer, try to\u00a0get the car or\u00a0camera storage area as close to air temperature as possible\u00a0 an hour or so\u00a0before you plan to\u00a0begin photographing.\u00a0 Otherwise, you will only be able to watch from the sidelines\u00a0while the glass returns to the ambient temperature.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A fawn's first pose for the camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The little guy above\u00a0had a lot of running he wanted to do before\u00a0his mother took him to the shady woods for a nap.\u00a0 Luckily, he decided to stop in front of me on\u00a0a little rise with nice shadows in the background.<\/p>\n

\"Mad<\/a>
Mad scramble for a nipple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0The fawns above were so eager to feed that they lifted mom right off the ground.\u00a0 Any time you are photographing young animals, keep your finger on the shutter release because something interesting what will happen.<\/p>\n

\"Fawn<\/a>
Fawn and doe share a "touching" moment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
This fawn\u00a0rested\u00a0its chin\u00a0on mom’s head for a brief moment.\u00a0 They may have been grooming each other or\u00a0just fulfilling a need to touch.<\/div>\n
\n
\"Timid<\/a>
Timid fawns at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"Twins<\/a>
Twins learning to feed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
I hope you can tell by looking at some of the previous shots that they were taken from a low angle.\u00a0 I was photographing\u00a0while sitting on the ground to improve the perspective.\u00a0 When you are doing wildlife photography, most of your photos will be more appealing if taken from a low angle; so wear old clothes you don’t mind getting dirty or wet with morning dew.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Getting<\/a>
Getting away from the insects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
A shot similar to this one was in a newsletter last year.\u00a0 I wanted to show you several shots of fawns and this is one of my favorites (shot from the car window).\u00a0 The photo was cropped to give\u00a0us a better view of\u00a0all four deer.\u00a0<\/div>\n
A few years ago, I watched fawns at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge\u00a0feeding on aquatic vegetation\u00a0in two feet of water at an\u00a0alligator infested\u00a0pond.\u00a0 The\u00a0gators seemed to be\u00a0cruising for bull frogs that day and the deer finished their feeding unharmed.<\/div>\n
\"Buck<\/a>
Buck scuffle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Both of these buck photos were taken last year, but I have seen some nice antler development this year, too.<\/div>\n
\n
\"September<\/a>
September bucks just beginning to shed their velvet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
If it doesn’t cool down in the next few days,\u00a0 we will look at more photos from the archives in our next report.<\/div>\n
Stay cool,<\/div>\n
Larry<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photographers,\u00a0the hummingbird photography workshop begins in\u00a0seven weeks?\u00a0 Did you know this is going to be a great opportunity for you to get some of the best bird photographs you could ever hope for?\u00a0 Three slots are open and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.\u00a0\u00a0When I get your deposit, you are officially … Continue reading Dealing with the Summer Heat!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}