Mule deer doe and backlit wildflowers, Yosemite NP, California. 262mm, 1/500 sec. at f/16, ISO 1600.
It’s midsummer, which motivates Claudia and me to seek cooler and less-crowded spots in the Yosemite high country. And there are usually many flowers at those higher elevations this time of year, which gives us another incentive to go up there.
We spent a couple of afternoons recently in some colorful meadows. I loved the way the sunlight filtered through the trees next to these meadows, creating bands of light and dark through patches of flowers.
Those scenes were challenging to photograph, because those bands were constantly shifting as the sun moved. Upon finding a composition I had to set up, compose, focus, and capture the image quickly before the light changed.
And most of the time I needed to focus stack to get everything in focus, which added to the challenge. Luckily my camera has automated focus stacking, which makes the process much faster. But even so, a moment of good light needed to correspond with a moment of calm wind. Luckily winds were light on both afternoons, but they weren’t perfectly calm all the time, causing me to miss some opportunities. But sometimes things worked out.
On one of those afternoons I found a pregnant doe and her two yearlings grazing in a meadow, so I concentrated on photographing them, trying to capture good poses with interesting light and photogenic surroundings. I’ve long been partial to wildlife photographs that show animals in their environment, and the thick flowers provided a beautiful setting.
The doe and her yearlings eventually headed off into the woods, but later, after the sun had left the meadow, two bucks and a doe wandered in, grazing among the flowers. Then two more bucks joined them. So I had a fun time photographing these cooperative animals.
Claudia and I have been doing a lot of traveling over the last year, but it’s always nice to return to our backyard. And we love the Yosemite high country in summer. It was so serene and peaceful in that meadow, watching the deer grazing calmly among the flowers. We humans tend to complicate and clutter our lives. The deer were simply living theirs, doing whatever they needed to do, unconcerned about the past or future, or their finances, or the latest news, or anything except the moment in front of them.
— Michael Frye
Yearling mule deer buck with Bigelow’s sneezeweed, Yosemite NP, California. 400mm, 1/500 sec. at f/16, ISO 3200.
Mule deer doe among wildflowers, Yosemite NP, California. 253mm, 1/500 sec. at f/16, ISO 3200
Mule deer buck and wildflowers, Yosemite NP, California. 400mm, 1/250 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 2000.
Wildflowers with shafts of light, Yosemite NP, California. 158mm, 1/10 sec. at f/16, ISO 100, focus stacked and blended with Helicon Focus.
Sneezeweed and tree shadows, Yosemite NP, California. 33mm, 1/10 sec. at f/16, ISO 100.
Cow parsnip and other wildflowers, Yosemite NP, California. 126mm, 1/30 sec. at f/16, ISO 100, focus stacked and blended with Helicon Focus.
Cow parsnips and Sierra lilies, Yosemite NP, California. 114mm, 1/30 sec. at f/16, ISO 100, focus stacked and blended with Helicon Focus.
Related Posts: In the Range of Light; Into the High Sierra: A Memorable Morning; Focus-Stacking Season
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.
Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Mich
ael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.
Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.
