For those who receive my newsletter, I mentioned at the end of April that I had just been to Richmond Park again to photograph the deer. It was a pretty early start, leaving home at 4.15am to meet Ian at the gates of the park at 5.30am to be inside for dawn. Which fortunately delivered some light although we had hoped for some mist which did not appear.

There were a lot of deer and importantly we managed to find them pretty quickly and make use of the good light. Although there were a couple of good sized herds, the best images were those where individuals were isolated and did not have other deer encroaching in the frame.

This one, at the edge of some woods fed for a while allowing quite a few good shots. The velvety antlers starting to form for the new season. This shot below was probably my favourite. I managed to combine light, a good pose, foreground grasses and background trees - all pretty cleanly.

The same deer as above and in the same place but turned around for a very different image.

Even at the end of April the light was becoming pretty harsh by 7am -just over an hour after first light. Shooting out of the woods became very contrasty so it was better to stick in the woods. Although on the way back to the car we came across a herd with a lot of jackdaws grooming them which were worth shooting. Sometimes 3 or 4 jackdaws on a deer - some of whom were more tolerating of the guests than others; the ying of having winter coat groomed away with the yang of annoying birds pecking at you.

This larger stag looks like he’s missing the dramatically large set of antlers.

I was quite jealous of the deer - at this time I could have used a couple of jackdaws on my lockdown mop.