The Fight

November 25, 2006

In My earlier post I showed you some of the photos I took early morning in GSMNP but some of the most excitement I’ve ever had as a photographer happened late in the morning. I was thinking the morning was winding down when I stumbled onto a buck fight. I heard the unmistakable sound of antlers clashing about 250 yards from me. I could barely make out the bucks because the weeds were so high. I covered the ground and got within about 30 yards of the fight but they were even less visible because of the weeds. The next thing I realize I have does running towards me from just about every direction. I had some does within about 15 feet of me. The buck fight covered some ground and other then the sounds I couldn’t really see it to well.

As a photographer you got to be ready for the unexpected and I certainly found myself in a situation where I had no idea what was going to happen next. The quality of many of my photos were not all that great some because the does were so close to me and the lenses I had on the camera was better suited for shots at more of a distance then 15 feet.

The buck fight lasted about 10 minutes and then all the deer melted back into the woods out of site. I kind of sat there for a minute in awe of what I had just experienced.