Bushy Park

Bushy Park is located a scant half hour from the Waterloo Train station. Target today, is of course the deer. So I walked. And walked. And walked. And got this:



Not too shabby for the 300mm/4 plus TC14EII. That's about the limits of the close focus on the 300/4, any closer and I'd need extension tubes, or better, the 200mm Micro Nikkor. The details are hurt more by the lack of stopping down as well as motion in the wind. Could probably do with a tripod but I'm not yet ready to carry a tripod around again.



The first set of deer I encountered was quite surprising... they were grazing a long a somewhat busy road where pedestrians were cycling to and fro, and toddlers being moved amoung them in buggies. So... evidently these were much more used to humans than the deer at Richmond Park. Glee!



Here's an "environmental" shot I've been trying to take, instead of just portraits. I think the residents love the deer, and many strollers would just stop to observe them. One thing I must say, is that a large number of people I encountered were very friendly, and several stopped to make conversation ("what a big lens you got!").



It's pretty easy to get a close up - I think it's currently off season and they seem very mellow. Don't quote me on this of course, I'm a wannabe-hobbyist wildlife photographer, not a naturalist.


I followed this herd of deer for a good part of an hour, munch munch munch was all they did :P



I can NOT resist portraits. The deer I met in Richmond were mostly without antlers, and those in Greenwich too far... this was my moment of non-stop portrait taking.







Got hungry and proceeded to find food. However, I stopped to make this photo:



This is my homage shot to Bjorn Rorslett. Lunch was a simple affair, a cheese burger from the vendor in the park. Oddly enough, that area was the children's play area, and I got lots of odd looks from parents. Never seen a wildlife photographer before people? :) I'm dressed in bloody, neon bright orange for goodness sake!



A few minutes walk from the vendor was this lake structure where the birds were whipping up a storm. There were also some baby birds floating around, got a few shots, too meh for me all went into the trashbin.



Also, since the birds were flying all over, I took a few minutes to practice some BIF photography. The shot above was taken with the 300/4 + TC14EII, it's reasonably sharp, and the D200 locks on pretty quickly in the overcast light. It also helps that the bird was landing.



Little peeps taking an afternoon siesta while the parent watches over.



OM NOM NOM NOM!



Well that's it. Have tons more but I'm not going to make anyone sit though twenty odd deer portraits :P Have a fawn day!