This past week has been filled with catching up with life’s regular to-do’s and I haven’t had much of a chance to go out on a photo walkabout.

This summer I’ve had a big “Pay-it-forward” project at a nearby paddock that holds two horses that needed some additional loving care. It’s a rather long story and let’s just say it’s been quite time consuming every day for the past three months.

But it is one of those projects that reward you 100-fold. Besides seeing the positive results from all of my efforts, it also has been a great opportunity to exercise more and increase strength and flexibility. I’d much rather do farm work all day long than go into a gym and lift weights for an hour.

As a nature photographer, endurance, strength and flexibility is essential for our success. Not only that, we have to be able to endure grueling conditions. Extreme heat or cold, no restroom facilities and little food. Superb nature photographers are a tough lot, and being a farm girl just supports it even more.

For budding nature photographers I’ve always encouraged a cross-training program to support your hobby. In fact, I came across a previous student who had taken my “Getting Started in Bird Photography” class over a year ago and said she took that advice to heart. She said that she was so happy how much it really helped her get up and down off of the ground as well as being able to carry heavy camera gear.

So I’ve been sweating it out in the horse field doing what one does when caring for horses when one late afternoon this beautiful fawn was there grazing. One of the days I happened to have my Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II with 300mm f/4 lens in the car, I ran and got it.

Clearly the fawn could see me. Hey..I’m in an open field. So what was one to do? Well, let’s speak horse ! So that’s exactly what I did. Making noises like a horse and slowly approaching she became quite curious of me and began getting closer and closer to me. Filling the frame with this little beauty before she decided to bound away.

So sweet, such a sweet reward. I hope she comes back to visit again soon.