#photo #photography #nature #wildlife #deer

Deer Photographer of the Year - Highly Commended

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Over the past 7 years, i've photographed deer, specifically red deer, on many occasions. I've photographed them in the wild in Scotland and the Peak District along with in retired royal deer parks across the country. No location has had more attention that Bradgate Park, though.

My Commended Photograph

After nearly a year of careful judging and assessing, the results were finally released to the public. Along side the incredible category winners (take a look here), there is an excellent selection of commended photographs, one of which is a photograph I took back in 2019 at Bradgate Park.

There isn't loads to say about this photograph on top of what I've already shared in my Photo Stories but I did want to make a post celebrating the incredible work of all the photographers who were awarded either winning images, or highly commended.

Here is what I wrote for the competition entry:

"On a chilly October morning, I headed to Bradgate Park. I arrived before sunrise and began checking my favourite spots. To my delight, I found a stag at the second spot I approached. I observed from a safe distance. As the sun rose, I got into position. In a rare and fleeting moment, everything came together perfectly. The sun illuminated the yet-to-fall oak leaves in their autumnal glory, the stag lifted a knee in preparation for rising on his hind legs to take a few oak leaves and exhaled, as though he was a dragon breathing fire. I captured several shots with a big smile on my face. Shortly after, he wandered towards the reservoir and I wrapped up the morning with a full English in the local café. Only after the fact did I notice he was missing one of his bez tines, a scarred dragon."

I knew this image was something special the second I had created it. The way everything came together just as I had hoped, the way I had projected it into the scene. I have spent many mornings attempting to recreate, and even improve upon, this image and have not since been successful at getting anything near.

So there you have it, an old image that I was super proud of has been recognised for its merit and I couldn't be more pleased!

You can check out the award on the DPOTY website here and I encourage you to have a look at the others there too!

Update

I've now had a certificate through for this image and wanted to add to this post.

Cheers!

Created by Niall Bell (niall@niallbell.com)