Wollaton Hall and Deer Park on WonderPan 400

 My wife and I had the sad duty to attend the funeral of a dear friend in Nottingham at the beginning of July and we planned on staying for a day or two to have a look around and give our friend Kay some company in her time of grief. I travelled light and took one camera, my Minolta Dynax 4 with 28-80mm kit lens, and one roll of film, Wonderpan 400 from Analogue Wonderland, just on the off chance I got to see something worth pointing a camera at.

The day after saying farewell to our friend Jeff, who passed away after a few years of deteriorating health, we decided to go out for a walk with his wife, Kay, to help her start this new stage of her life as best we could. Kay suggested we visit Wollaton Hall Gardens and Deer Park, a huge country park and stately home on the outskirts of Nottingham that is open to the public. We reckoned it would be nice to get some fresh air, so I picked up my camera and off we went.

I have seen Deer up close only a couple of times in my life and just once in over 20 years near my home. To be able to see some reasonably close was an offer I couldn't pass up. I was also regretting tavelling light. I instantly knew my 70-210mm beercan lens was the bare minimum I should have had, yet I only had the one lens, my 28-80 kit lens. I had to play this smartly and try not to get myself in a pickle.

If this was in the Highlands of Scotland, I wouldn't have got this close to the Deer. They are truly wild up there and you don't argue with a big Deer. However, the Deer at Wollaton Hall have become accustomed to the presence of the humans who visit them and there are plenty of signs giving advice on keeping yourself and the Deer safe. I took care to keep a safe distance and really wished I had taken my 70-210mm zoom.

I gently approached the first group I came across, a few Bucks with this years Antlers still covered with velvet. I took my time, stayed around 50 metres away and remained quiet and calm in the hope the Deer would see I was no threat to them, I was just another human with a camera. This seemed to work and I hoped my automatic, autofocus camera would not spook them with it's noisy motors. I took my first shot.

They didn't even bat an eyelid.

This made me feel a little more confident and I took a few photos before moving on to the group of Does in the next field. May to July is calving season and I kept my distance as I knew they would move away at the first sign of trouble. One small group moved, but a larger group stayed and didn't mind me taking my last few photos before I left them in peace to continue their foraging. 24 shots don't last long when you're enjoying some quality time with nature.

It's a priviledge to be able to photograph Deer in their own habitat. The fact the herd at Wollaton Hall are used to humans helped me a lot and encouraged me to want to return with longer lenses and maybe even my DSLR. I took quite a few photos with my phone camera, but it's a far cry from my Nikon D610. That one's coming with me next time along with my Tamron 70-300mm, AF Nikkor 24-120mm, my Nikon F801s and a spare lens to try to cover all the bases.

When I returned home, I developed my film in Kodak HC110 dilution B, 1+31, for 17 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised my film with my Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 size led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

I really enjoyed my encounter with the Deer at Wollaton Hall and you can too as it is open all year round. Just remember to take heed of the signs giving advice on how you can watch the Deer in a safe manner and share some quality time in their environment. You can find more information by visiting the Wollaton Hall website using the link below. Here's a few of my favourite film photos of the Deer and I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Wollaton Hall - WonderPan 400
Wollatonhall.org.uk