Dawn in the Woods

「風情」- Fuzei, is one of the quintessential Japanese concepts of beauty I find myself heavily influenced by, yet have enormous difficulty finding an exact match for in the English language. The two Chinese characters literally mean ‘wind’ and ‘emotion’ respectively. It broadly refers to ephemeral beauty in living things and moments or one’s ability to find and appreciate it.

Photographers all over the world regardless of their language and culture whose interest includes wildlife and nature must be on a journey to find ‘fuzei’ through the viewfinder.

Each season brings with it some distinct set of colours and hues all of which I fully embrace. But the word ‘fuzei’ is more about picking up subtle transient changes - a drop or rise in temperatures, the sun rising earlier or later, or changes in the species you see, all of which suggest the big clock called nature is ticking along properly. One of the autumnal highlights of British wildlife is the rut. Still too early in the season, though, curiosity got the better of me so I headed out for several days in a row trying to have a glimpse into the deer’s lives at this time of year.

The weather has been very volatile of late. We had some nightly thunderstorms with heavy rain. But for two mornings in a row, I was miraculously blessed with a beautiful glow from the rising sun. It enveloped the woods from a low angle providing a gentle curtain of light, picking out the damp coat of the deer, and giving sparkles to the falling droplets of rainwater from the previous night as they were released from tree canopies as winds gently swept through them.

In the first photo, you can see an interesting juxtaposition - the leaves on the trees are still green, yet there is a carpet of fallen leaves on the ground creating a sea of burnished yellow and orange.

Sunrise Reprieve

I must admit the whole process is highly addictive. When you set off, you are more doubtful how the daybreak will play out. After all, it is still rather dark when you leave. But the moment you park up and see the light from the rising sun, you become absolutely convinced that this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Your stride becomes bigger and the pace faster.

You could be forgiven for thinking you are somewhere in African Savanah…

On the second day of my visit, a big branch had fallen off from one of the old trees in the woods and attracted a herd of deer. Initially I thought they were munching at the leaves but they were scraping and rubbing their antlers against the branch. Nowadays, the stags and bucks in the park have already lost the soft velvety coats on their antlers so I wonder if they still have an itch or just polishing them for the big fight later. Who knows.

In the meantime in the same woods, some individuals were more interested in eating, creating rather peaceful scenes like this buck here gazing very intently trying to decide which leaf it wants.

Cherrypicking - deer are said to be very picky eaters.

And nearby some fallow deer with their trademark white spots added interest to the autumnal capture.

Looking more autumnal although the trees in the background still have lush green leaves.

I witnessed some sporadic ‘play fights’ mainly between two young bucks trying to establish dominance over the other. It is far from the serious fight between more mature dominant stags.

Curvature vs Length?

An interesting thought occurred to me when looking at the picture. The young one on the left was more confident and pretended to charge more. But as you can tell, the one on the right-hand side has slightly longer set of antlers. Which should mean it should be more confident. But on a closer inspection, the antlers on the left-hand side buck look more imposing - the brow tines look more extended forward before they hook upwards, which suggests it would have a better grip and could flick its opponent more easily. Unsure if wild animals discern such slight differences in body features in each other but that must play a part in how they come across in their demeanours.

A Potential King Waiting in the Wings?

As is always the case with anything though, while the young and insignificant engaged in play fights to determine a temporary hierarchy, the main characters are still lurking somewhere not so easily seen, saving energy and storing fat for the real battle later, like this big mature stag preferring a shade under a tree.

Perhaps it’ll be another month and a bit before the rut starts in earnest. I didn’t see any of the signature actions but that was expected. I left the park feeling far more rewarded than I had imagined though. Do you think that might have something to do with the fact that I was after autumnal scenes with ‘fuzei’ rather than the typical action shots people normally associate with the rut? Looking for seasonal cues not just in the animals but in the environment?

What photographic scenes are you after this season? Do you have any particular cultural concept or philosophy that influence your photographic style? Let me know in the comment section below.