My Best Wild Roe Deer Photos

I’ve posted a couple of these shots previously, but I’ve recently had time to go through and edit some of the other photos taken during the same burst.

Here I tracked a wild roe deer with my Nikon Z8 and 400mm F4.5, after it spotted me and bolted. Conditions were great, with a clear view and the sun low in the evening sky, allowing for some lovely colours and interesting lighting.

I think these might be the best roe deer photos I’ve taken. Portrait shots are all well and good, but I think the best wildlife photography shows more than just a nice closeup of the animal - them eating, hunting, fighting, flying, etc. As such, I’m really pleased to capture this deer ‘in flight’.

Wildlife With the Nikon 400mm F4.5 for Z Mount

Continuing on from my last few posts, here are some more edits from the backlog of photos I’ve recently got round to looking at, on account of having some time while I recover from surgery.

All are taken with Nikon’s Z mount 400mm F4.5 lens. Someone once remarked on a forum post elsewhere that this lens wasn’t long enough for proper wildlife photography. This struck me as a stupid comment. I hope the following will demonstrate why; you simply need to get closer to your subject physically. For me, that’s half of the fun of wildlife photography - testing your hunting skills, without doing any physical harm to a beautiful, sentient creature.

More From the Photo Backlog

Following on from my last post - https://lukebennettphotos.com/blog/2026/1/31/photography-problems-the-ever-increasing-backlog-of-photographs-that-need-editing - here are a few more recent edits, done whilst recouping from surgery a month ago.

I’ve written on here before about how hard and sporadic it can be to get out and about with my camera, even at the best of times, but currently it’s impossible on an ongoing basis. Looking back through these photos whilst editing, I mostly feel gratitude - that despite the pain, exhaustion, and other consequences of getting out and taking them, I’m really pleased I did. I also feel worried that I might not be able to again for some time, or as frequently (despite it already being far from regular, and completely at the mercy of my health), or even at all. But that’s a story for another day.

The following were taken at various points in 2025. Of the beasties, all but the last four photos were of fully wild animals. The last four were taken in a National Trust property, so technically still wild, but within the confines of Charlecote Gardens, so no real skill is involved in sneaking up on them.

Long-tailed Tits in the Frost

These were taken during the spells of early morning frost we had at the start of January. Bitingly cold, but beautiful conditions for photography.

These long-tailed tits were busy hopping from branch to branch, picking off any little bugs and mites they found along the way.

Deer, oh Deer

I managed to conjure up a small amount of energy this last week and ventured out to a tried and tested area I know near me where I always seem to spot some good wildlife.

This particular evening didn’t disappoint as I managed to sneak up on a family of wild roe deer, a lone hare, and a buzzard.

I’ll save the latter two encounters for future posts, but here are some of the wild roe deer I crept up to and hid behind a bush from.

All images were taken with the Nikon Z 400mm f4.5 lens, whilst wearing a camouflage ghillie. In post, for the first five images I’ve exaggerated the pinkish tone that was already naturally present in the scene.

Birds! Birds! Birds!

This month, I have been mostly photographing birds.

Followers of my Instagram page (@luke_bennett_photos) may be aware that one of my photographic missions this spring is to capture a nice photo of grebes doing their little mating dance ritual. I had some success with this recently; just in the last few minutes of daylight I witnessed a minor courtship display. It petered out very quickly and didn’t fully develop into anything much, but I captured what looked a little bit like a bird tango, with each grebe passing the side of the other, wings-a -flutter in charming choreography.

It wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned - I’d been thinking more along the lines of the classic face-to-face mirrored head and body movements - but it was still lovely to see. The mission continues…

On the same evening, in the last moments of sunlight I also had some fun playing with the ripples and reflections on the water and lining up whatever happened to be nearby. In this instance a solitary greylag goose.

When not walking around the lake near me, I’ve enjoyed watching the garden birds outside my window, taking advantage of the bird bath and feeder.

Birds (mainly herons!) in Flight

I’ve just been looking at some bird edits from the last 12 months or so and collated what I think are my most successful bird in flight images to date. As mentioned previously on this blog, it’s something I’ve been trying to do more of and improve on.

It seems, I have a bit of a leaning towards the heron, which forms most of the images below. When I think about it, it’s obvious why - They’re big, they fly low and close, they fly slowly, and they’re not at all uncommon. Luckily for me there are at least four that like to hang around the lake near me. Even better, they omit a loud, high-pitched squawk before taking flight, as if to let you know to get your camera ready!