Coming home from Thanksgiving at Jonna’s mothers in Central Oregon I decided to take the back road to get around the Redmond traffic and do a little deer hunting. I armed myself with my trusty 100-400mm L zoom lens on the 5D Mk II and let my wife do the driving.

I don’t think there has been a time that I have been across that road and not seen deer but most often they are over in the alfalfa fields which does not make for a real natural setting even though it is the natural place for them to be. If they aren’t in the fields they are on the other side of the road in the juniper and sage brush. While much harder to spot, it makes a much nicer image.

This is a mix of bucks and does. It is mating season over there and the bucks that are getting lucky have their does herded together. There are some pretty nasty fights between the bucks and you can see in the  full size image one of the bucks in these images has blood on an antler and another is missing an eye. You won’t see it in any of the images in this post. They can get very aggressive and  can get just as rough as a biker bar on a Saturday night.