Exhausted

I keep going back to Petworth.

This morning, as James had the day off and hadn't been able to come with me for a while, he suggested we go and walk the dogs there. The last time he came down the deer were just coming into rut. There were so many people around at the weekend, all pointing cameras and disturbing the deer with flash lights and dogs out of control. I jumped at the idea of obtaining some shots without other photographers in the background of every image.

There are plenty of deer to photograph and I got some more really lovely shots although, with three Spaniels at heel for the most part I kept my distance.
This buck is exhausted for the continuous challenging and charging. He's not one of the lucky ones with does to protect. Maybe he'll gain strength and a harem of his own next year. He barely moved, even when the dogs went a little closer than I'd planned. It gave me the opportunity to get up really close and catch the tiredness in his eyes.