The less happy side of nature photography (warning - death)

[mattsteg]

Nature isn't all happy pretty life. Here's a sequence of shots I took over thanksgiving while visiting my parents. A deer had tried to cross over the lake shortly after the first freeze and the ice was too thin for her. It went partially through and was stuck out on the ice.

By the time I was out there any struggling had stopped and she was pretty calm and resigned to her fate.

Maybe an hour later, she was losing strength and could barely keep her head up.



The ravens and eagles were keeping watch, waiting for the inevitable end.

The next day the scavengers dined well

and a cold wind picked up and blew snow across the remains of what had been a healthy young doe a couple of days previous.

[jobodaho]

Wow, now that's sad. Nature can really be a bitch, and I have a hard time watching the Nature channel for that very reason.

[Hance]

pretty cool series of photos matt.

[ReAp3r-G]

i find the photos along with the captioning to be very poetic...i love the nature channel...and they always have the same story over and over...different animal same story line...birth-life-death...i hate the death part...too sad

seeing those series of photos reminds me of bambi

[FireGryphon]

Kudos on your photo documentary. It's sad, but you did it respectfully. Well done, mattsteg.

[mattsteg]

The "real" shot to get would have been to capture the half-dozen eagles and similar number of ravens dining on the body, but they were hugely alert. They'd vacate the instant I started down the hill from my parents' house maybe 1/2 mile away. I think I would have needed to set up a blind and wait in it for several hours or even leave it out overnight if I had really wanted to illustrate that. One day's life is the next's food.