Photographing Deer in the Cairngorms

Many of you know that I went up to the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland to photograph some of the winter wildlife which calls the park home. One of the wishlist photographs that I wanted, was a Red Deer stag in and amongst the pine trees. So as part of a Northshots tour, I managed to spend a fair amount of time photographing them.

I had seen quite a few different photos from some of the great Scottish wildlife photographers of these deer in the forests. The goal was to try and get a personal and intimate image that would add to the mythical status of the creature. So, there had to be trees, both in the foreground and background.

I am very happy with these two.

Which do you prefer, the landscape version or the portrait version?