White Tailed DeerA white-tailed deer silhouettes against the horizon in the Smoky Mountains. (Photo David A. Murray)

Rain, rain, and more rain, sometimes Mother Nature just doesn't cooperate. This was certainly the case during a brief stop in the Smokies a few of years ago.

While finalizing the driving travel itinerary for a trip to Alabama, I discovered that it brought me reasonably close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. I could arrange a few extra days, so why not? It was the early fall and the white-tailed deer would be active, and the Smokies is a great place for deer photography.

In wildlife and outdoor photography the weather is a very important factor, particularly when you only have a few days to photograph. On this short stop in the Smoky Mountains the gamble didn't pay off. I had three full days of rain, but the show must go on and fair-weather photographers miss opportunities.

A cold, rainy day doesn't substantially alter a deer's daily activities. Feeding and pre-rut activities continue like any other day. However, for the photographer, these activities on a rainy day aren't the same as any other day. In these weather conditions, the light is generally low and that coupled with the fact that most deer activity is in the early morning or late afternoon presents a significant challenge for slow-speed slide film.

This may raise the question, why use a slow speed film when 800-speed film will solve the problem? The answer to the question involves the quality of the film. The faster 800-speed film would certainly be adequate to allow for a fast enough shutter speed for sharp images, but the problem is in the graininess of the film.

A thorough discussion of film is a lengthy and technical topic, which we won't cover here. Nevertheless, to summarize the point I'm making here. All film has a grain structure, which reveals itself when viewed under magnification or in a print; as the size of the print increases, the magnified grain becomes more apparent. Simply put, the tighter the grain structure the larger you can make the image and maintain good quality. Editors and publishers look for quality images shot with slow speed films for calendars, magazine covers, or whatever. Fast film has more grain due to the manufacturing process. Although, with today's technology, advancements in film have been tremendous and there are now some good quality fast films out there. Unfortunately, that was not the case a few years ago when this shoot took place.

To remain competitive in the professional wildlife arena a 100-speed film is the fastest I used at that time, and so consequently that's all I brought. Again, remember this was a number of years ago. It's worth mentioning that with the substantial advancements in film today, now I always travel with a supply of 400-speed film for this type of low light situation.

In photography, there is a big difference between taking a picture and creating a picture. One of the techniques that are applicable to a low light rainy day, with slow speed film, is the silhouette.

Creating a silhouette is a relatively easy technique, but does require some forethought and specific equipment. On the equipment side of things, you need to have a 35mm camera with manual exposure settings and a TTL (through-the-lens) light meter preferably with a spot-metering option.

To create a silhouette the background needs to be brighter than the foreground, such as the skyline in this deer silhouette photo. To set the exposure you meter the background, in this case, I took my meter reading from the sky behind the deer. Make sure that your meter reading is only from the background; you can do this by tilting your camera to eliminate the foreground or by using a spot-meter setting, if your camera's light meter has this option.

Now, recompose the shot and fire away. When you recompose the shot, the camera meter will indicate an incorrect exposure of the scene, but ignore that reading and stay with your background reading. The end-result will be a properly exposed background with everything in the foreground very dark or black. You have now silhouetted the subject in the foreground. The background exposure can be tweaked a bit as you gain experience with silhouettes.

It was the end of the third day, and time to pack up and leave the Smoky Mountain National Park. I was soaking wet, cold, and had shot a bunch of mediocre images. I had convinced myself that it was the best that I could expect for a brief trip and rainy weather, but stayed to squeeze the last bit of gloomy light out of the day.

As the day ended, I turned to start hiking back to the road when my eye caught some movement on a distant ridge. After a day of rutting (breeding) activity, the seemingly tired buck walked along the edge of the ridge beautifully silhouetted against the gray horizon. I quickly set-up and exposed for a silhouette. Click! Click! One image made the trip a success! The image titled "End of the Season" became a popular gallery print and published numerous times.

Good shooting!

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