December 24, 2010
Mule Deer Buck at Heron Lake State Park

I wanted to share one of the decent images of a Mule Deer buck that I captured recently at Heron Lake State Park in northern New Mexico. This guy (above) and an other similarly-sized buck were competing for a harem not too far from our campground. We photographed the action from our mobile blind, aka our Jeep Liberty. I used my standard wildlife setup which is my Canon EOS 1D Mk IV and Canon EF 500mm f4 L IS USM. Because we were photographing from the Jeep, I had two Wimberley M-1 modules attached to the Kirk replacement tripod foot (LP-53 bracket) on the 500 f4 to make a Z-shaped foot to rest on a Molar Bean Bag by Vertex Photographic placed over the window and door. This setup is extremely stable. So stable in fact that I'm comfortable letting the camera rest on the beanbag without me holding it!

I would have preferred to have been able to capture all of the buck's front legs, but he had moved in too close by the time he posed nicely. It would be great if Canon would release a 200-600 f4 DO that was just as sharp as their current 500 f4. Actually, I'd settle for a new-and-improved 100-400 that was a constant f4, wasn't a push-pull design, and was sharper than their current 100-400.