Decided to go and explore Fort Snelling State Park hoping to see an owl or some other type of wildlife to photograph on a mid-February Saturday. The park was quite busy as many others were taking in the day snowshoeing, skiing, or just hiking like I was. As the day came closer to an end deer began showing up scrounging in the snow for food. It was fun to watch as they dug around slowly pushing aside snow here and there and then  moved on to the next spot. I didn’t seem to really bother them which gave me the opportunity to photograph them on their journey.

There wasn’t much in the way of color besides the brown of the deer and trees against the white snow. This seemed like a great opportunity to play with black and white photography. It really seems to bring out the snow on the nose of this deer and the texture of the bark in the trees in the background. Amazing how small the deer appears when compared to the large trees behind it. You can tell there is a fair amount of snow on the ground as it goes up around the deer’s legs making it more challenging to get from place to place.

Turning behind me I happened to catch this deer chewing on a stick which was entertaining for me. It seemed like the deer wanted to break the stick off but was unsuccessful in doing so. Still an interesting look on it’s face. While deer tend to be pretty common at this Minnesota State Park it was still fun to see them and photograph a few working on different techniques and compositions while they slowly meandered by on a nice winter afternoon. Temperatures rose into the 20’s Fahrenheit which felt really nice after weeks of much colder weather. The deer seemed to be enjoying a warmer day also.