Woodland Creatures

When I was visiting my parents in Pennsylvania this past April I spent an evening with my Uncle Willard. Willard is into wildlife photography and film making. He’s a Game Law Enforcer, also known as a “Game Warden” who used to hunt, but now only hunts with a video or digital camera. I’m not talking small stuff either, he’s invested in a lot of equipment to get the best wildlife documentation possible.

Anyway, Willard has a herd of wild deer that he feeds every evening. He’s befriended many herds over the last 10 years or more. One evening he took me to see his latest herd, mainly made up of does (female deer). He picked me up at my parents house and we drove over a ridge and down past the farm that he and my step Dad grew up on. We then had to cross a creek that was barely crossable with his sport utility vehicle. There’s a more dry entrance to the destination, but this was a short cut. It wasn’t long until we were entering the sacred place in which Willard communes with the creatures of the wild.

I could tell these deer knew him because of how calmly they remained as we drove into the field, normally they would have been running for their lives. As Willard got out of the vehicle and prepared the buckets of feed, I gingerly got out knowing that the deer were not going to be sure of me. They kept their distance from me as I watched one trot right up to Willard and his bucket of feed. He was also throwing feed into the field and the deer dined on their friend’s hand outs of kindness.

Willard then set up his “rig”, a Canon Professional Digital SLR with a Gigantic lens. There was a shutter release cable attached that was taped to the handle of the tripod. You could keep your hand on the tripod handle and shoot with with the same hand. As me and Willard talked about photography and what inspired each of us to pursue it, I was taking a few shots with his Canon. The above image is one of my favorites that I captured that evening. One of Willard’s woodland friends wondering who in the world I am.