Mule deer

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From a technical standpoint, this photo sucks ass! It was exposed poorly, it's not very sharp, there's a ton of noise -- owing to the fact I shot it with a telephoto lens on my camera and it was dusk.

From a composition viewpoint...hey it's actually not that sucky. I got a decent shot of the deer's eyes. I followed the rule of thirds, with the deer taking the left and center frame. I almost kinda dig it.

Of course, these days it's possible to go to any photo sharing website and see pixel perfect photos that practically let you see the insides of the deer. If I posted this anywhere but my own blog, it would get laughed right off the page.

But here's the thing: screw you, pixel counters and digital photography slaves! Photos don't have to be perfect. They don't even have to be near perfect. If you're an amateur hobbyist, they just have to be kinda interesting and in photos such as the above, there's often a next time. The mule deer at Will Rogers State Park almost always wander near the parking lot and stables at dusk.

So next time I'll bring a tripod, lower the ISO (this image captured at 1600) and perhaps have a crisper telephoto lens than the shitty one (in Nikon's defense, I dropped this one in the ocean) I'm too cheap to replace.

Check out more of my not-perfect-but-kinda-interesting photography on my SmugMug site and follow me on Twitter. I just hurt my knee today playing hockey, so I have nothing better to do for a few days than blather online whether anyone's listening or not.

--S.H.

This photo is ©Steve Hymon and may not be used elsewhere without Steve Hymon's advance written permission. All rights reserved.