Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Peek-a-roe: A summer of ‘patience and persistence’
A TEENAGE photographer spent hours crawling on his hands and knees to capture these beautiful images of a roe deer peering through wheat at sunset.
Ben Pulletz, 19, crept downwind along a dirt track in order to not disturb the majestic creature nestled in the undergrowth near his home in Somerton, Somerset.
He then managed to capture stunning images of the deer peeping through sheaths of wheat as well as bounding across the field of crops as the golden sun set.
Ben said he spent the summer following the family of deer and getting to know their movements throughout the day so he could eventually get the perfect shot.
He added: “Sunset tends to be the best time to get the images.
“I’ve captured them in different lights and all the light you can see – the red and orange – is completely natural.
“I crawled along a tram line for two hours and kept looking for the deer. It sounds mad, I know. Then there it was, this head popped up and it looked straight at me. I managed to photograph it a couple of times.
“It didn’t move at all, it was amazing really.
“I spent the summer tracking and following the deer so I think they are used to seeing me and they think ‘I know he’s not a threat’.
“I absolutely love the deer and they are nice to look at. I am completely addicted to taking pictures of them. I started taking pictures oneand-half years ago and haven’t put my camera down since.
“I would rather wait hours for the right light, timing and location than take lots of average shots.
“Patience and persistence are what I go by to capture the images.”
Ben used a hand-held Canon 5D with a 100-400mm lens to capture the images last week.