Nara, Japan is where you will find Nara Deer Park, a huge area inhabited by many deer that have become accustomed to human presence: www.cnn.com/travel/article/nara-park-deer-japan/index.html
On the outskirts of the park is Kofuku-ji, a temple compound surrounded by cherry trees. That is where we were last weekend. We stayed at a hotel right across the street from Kofuku-ji, which I would not recommend unless you don’t mind being woken up by a loud gong just before six o’clock in the morning. In my case, I made the best of the situation by going out with my OM-1 and the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 Pro. Up until now I had been shooting mostly birds with my OM-1, and was looking forward to fur detail instead of the usual feather detail.
As luck would have it, the deer strolled by me shortly after I exited the hotel towards the temple. I didn’t even have to enter the temple compound to see deer grazing on a hillside cut by a short retaining wall. It was on the sidewalk next to the retaining wall that I positioned myself, crouched low so as not to be too threatening. I should not have worried, as the deer felt quite comfortable coming within a couple of feet of me. This one stag(?) seemed curious enough to get very close and sort of sniff around. After a while, he exhaled with a flare of the nostrils, just as I was firing off a burst:
I was pleased to see good fur detail, indeed even some fine hairs on the antlers. And if you zoom way in to the closer eye, you might be able to make out the photographer, crouched down behind that wall, wearing a hat and holding a camera.
