Photographing Wildlife in my Backyard

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

I don’t consider myself to be a wildlife photographer but sometimes opportunties just walk into your own backyard , as was the case with this young mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) photographed, literally, in my backyard.

Several times a day individuals and groups of mule deer —so-called because of their big ears—stroll leisurely across Daisy Hill on their way to find nourishment, sometimes my landscaping. I started photographing this critter with a Tamron 14-150mm Di III ($589) from the sidewalk in front of my house. Starting at 150mm and slowly walking toward her until I made this shot before she jumped the fence. Exposure with an Olympus OM-D EM-10 (lens at 300mm equivalent) was 1/320 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 400.

If you’re new to mirrorless photography, a zoom range of 14-150mm may not seem like a big deal until you realize that on the Micro Four-thirds system it produces an angle-of-view equivalent of a 28-300mm with a lens that weighs less than ten ounces and is 3.3-inches long. By comparison with my Canon EOS system an EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM lens weighs 3.67 pounds and is 7.2-inches long and costs $2549.