While walking down an unfamiliar deer trail, I turned a corner next to a summer field. To my surprise (and probably his) a whitetail buck stood no more than 40 yards in front of me. I slowly crouched down while raising my camera, and to my surprise the buck did not take off. He stared directly at me, stomping his front hoof and bobbing his head. It was as if he was just as startled at the encounter as I was! For several minutes we simply stared at each other as I captured as many photographs as I could of him. He then strode into the adjacent field, the tips of his velvet antlers visible over the high grass.
