Deer in the Front Yard / Do Your Own Thing

Just One of Many

A female white-tailed deer enjoyed a snack in our front yard recently.

One day as I was walking through the house, I happened to see a deer out the window. This deer was not off in the distance, but instead, it was right out the window. While making as little noise as possible, I grabbed my camera to try to get a photo of it. Going outside was out of the question because the deer would have run away. So I quietly placed the camera lens in between the slats of the window blinds and shot this through the window.

For the most part, the deer was happily eating grass. But an eating deer was not quite the photo that I wanted. I gently tapped on the window glass, and that was just enough to cause the deer to stop eating for a moment and look around for any danger. She did not see me and soon returned to eating, but I had gotten the photo I wanted by that time.

As is usual with deer in our yard, this one was not alone. Several others were eating in the distance, but this one was the only one close to the house. And the others did not choose to stand directly behind this one, so that they would show up in the photo. But they were there.

Green, Green Grass of Home

One thing I like about this photo is how green the grass looks. For most of August, the grass in our yard had turned yellow due to a lack of rain. As soon as some rain fell (thanks to Hurricane Laura), the grass turned green again. Not too long before this photo was taken, Laura had cut the yard grass while I cut some of the non-yard grass with the tractor.

We do not concern ourselves that much with having a “perfect” yard. Not many people see it besides us and the various trucks that come up the driveway, such as garbage, postal, UPS, FedEx, and Amazon. And of course the deer see it, too. But that’s about it.

We try to keep the grass under control, but we don’t worry too much about having only Bermuda grass and no weeds. We do not have that many trees, but we don’t bother with raking leaves and pine needles when they fall. And although we do have some flowers and shrubs, we don’t go overboard with landscaping.

If we lived in a neighborhood in town, we would probably get letters from the homeowners’ association. “Your yard is dragging down the whole neighborhood,” they would probably say. One of the benefits of living where we live is not having to worry about that. If the grass ever gets so tall that we can’t find Copper the Beagle, then we know it needs cutting. But usually, it never gets anywhere near that point.

The yard is fine for us, and it makes us happy just like it is. And the deer apparently like it, too.

Do your own thing. Don’t get too caught up in what other people might think. No matter what the HOA might say.

Bible Verse

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:10

About the Photo

As I mentioned above, I took this photo while looking out the window. I used the 28-70mm zoom lens, zoomed all the way. 70mm is not all that much when you are trying to zoom in on a specific object, such as a deer. But it was good enough, thanks to the deer being so close to the house. Although I mainly like wider angles, maybe one of these days I should look into a more powerful zoom lens for things such as this.

Shooting through the window caused the photo to look slightly dull due to the extra layers of glass. I compensated for this in the processing. The final photo looks more vibrant and natural when compared to the original version. I also played around with the greens a bit to get just the right amount of green tone without it being too overpowering. After all, the deer is meant to be the main focus here, and too much green might be distracting.

Photos: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens
Date: September 17, 2020
Location: Home, Williston, Tennessee