
White-tailed Deer, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2026 — There is a whole story about this encounter in my Day Poem today, but suffice it to say that this young buck, still in velvet, with two unequal horns, was right beside the trail through the marsh where it goes into the woods. Probably about 40 feet from me. It was moving away, but stopped to look back over its shoulder at me—as White-tails are apt to do when not feeling particularly threatened. He was in no hurry, so I had time to try a number of different angles, low and high, to try to get the twigs out from in front of his eyes. Sony RX10 V at 600mm equivalent (cropped to about 850mm field of view). My custom Birds and Wildlife shooting mode. Processed from a HEIF file in Photomator.