Apprehensive Doe in a Clearing

by Lise Winne

Title

Apprehensive Doe in a Clearing

Artist

Lise Winne

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

As I was walking in one of my favorite fields, a doe was hiding in the bushes. It was rather close. When I looked over in her direction, she bolted out from her hiding place and ran away from me. I got out my camera to get a shot, but she was too far away.

Anyway, I think she was interested in some berries that I was standing next to, because she didn't run as far away from me as she could have. I wandered around the field taking pictures of other things, and she kept a close watch on me. I wanted to get closer, but she kept dodging me and hiding in other bushes.

She became more relaxed as time went on (I was in the field a long time) and she was eating grass in another clearing far from me. As I approached her, I kept my gaze away from her, but took out my camera and pointed it in another direction, up in the sky. Then I whipped around and got this shot of her. You can see that she is still looking at me, but I could swear it was a more curious look. She did run away again, and was eating grass near some laundry that was floating in the breeze.

Years ago, this field had a lot of deer. They would stand like statues on some of the suburban lawns that they had inadvertently wandered into, and they would look like statues until they ran away. When I'd hike in the field on some mornings, I could see the places they bedded down in for the night. Now, I don't see as much of that because suburban sprawl is encroaching on this field, and I think the traffic noises are also making them apprehensive about setting this up as their territory.

Anyway, I was happy I could capture this doe, even though I felt a little guilty about disturbing her peace. I felt, by the end of the day, that I had a bit of a relationship with her by sharing the field at the same time and keeping an eye on each other. I often wonder if she was as curious about me as I was about her.

As I drove home, I thought about how she may be bedding down in that field for the night, and whether she looked up at the stars. I thought about the berries she would eat now that I wasn't around. I thought about the cold winters she had to endure. I thought about how she was alone, and vulnerable, and would she be able to fend off attacks from other animals? I wondered if she was lonely. I wondered how scary human beings were to her. I wondered if she weighed in her mind differences in human beings, women as compared to men, for instance.

Photo and text copyright Lise Winne, 2021, 2022

Uploaded

June 6th, 2022

Statistics

Viewed 1,539 Times  -  Last Visitor from Baltimore, MD on 04/25/2024 at 4:04 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags