It’s not all Planes!
In early October I headed north to Leicestershire to do something a bit different, shoot some Deer with a camera.
Bradgate Park is located to the north of Leicester and covers some 850 acres of countryside. Owned and managed by the Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood Trust, the park was gifted to the people of Leicestershire in the late 1920’s.
The scenery is absolutely stunning allowing you to get close (not too close of course) to the wildlife. Our guide for the day was internationally respected wildlife photographer Danny Green. I cannot speak more highly of Danny, he made us feel welcome and was there to impart his knowledge of the local surroundings. We really couldn’t have been in better hands.
An early start, we were at the gates before the park was opened, at 6am. By 6.30 were were parked inside and walking in the darkness towards the deer. The weather was pretty awful at that time of day, low cloud and drizzly rain. Not ideal conditions but we went with it.
By the time first light was breaking we had been walking for around half an hour to reach our first position, Danny had guided us to a herd of Red Deer grazing.
Throughout the day we spent several hours moving position to catch the deer in various parts of the park. Red Deer aren’t tame but tolerate humans and aren’t easily spooked, so you can get a respectable distance from them. Fallow Deer, however, are the opposite and won’t hang around, so we had to be careful in our positioning to capture them.
After a fantastically hearty breakfast (all included in the price) at one of the Cafe’s surrounding the park we went back in search of more Deer. I had a time limit as I knew I’d be facing the M1 and M25 home on a Friday night which is never fun!
Thankfully we found ourselves with a herd and a challenger, about 20 metres from where we stood, two Stags went for it and locked antlers. I’ll admit I wasn’t in the best position to photograph this tussle but what a sight to witness, the noise of the antlers crashing against each other. Absolutely magnificent.
Sadly I then had to make my way back to my car, leaving my friends in the park. I cannot stress how good an opportunity this was and we’ve already booked again for next year with Danny.
If you get a chance to go, take it.
