London’s first snow of the season (and lots of deer)
Richmond Park was transformed into a wintery white realm on Sunday morning, as snow (yes!!) fell on the capital and the South East. Mostly taken with the X-T1 and 16-55mm and 55-200mm.
I arrived about an hour before sunrise, but it was much too dark to photograph anything without a tripod. Then, the much-anticipated sunrise was nothing too spectacular as the skies were overcast. Well, that happens. Persistence!
From previous shoots, I noticed that the 55-200mm sometimes struggled to produce sharp and ‘clean’ images in low light so I had contemplated bringing the 50-140mm along, but I didn’t fancy being bogged down by the weight, and besides, I thought I’d need the longer focal length. What I didn’t expect was the deer to be so approachable in the cold – I could get to within 5m of them with the right field techniques, eg. not approaching in a straight line, not looking directly at them, squatting a lot to appear less threatening, very slow movements, oodles of patience! – and a few of them were even shot with my 16-55 and the deer’s head filled the frame! When I photograph them at other times of the year, especially during the rut, they are a lot more sensitive to the presence of humans. As light improved, the 55-200mm once again came into its own.
