ECCG members had a wet drive down to Killarney early Sunday morning for the annual deer rut,arriving before 8 to be met on the bridge by about 30 other photographers awaiting for their chance to capture the deer in the rain.

Rain indeed was the main feature of the day but we managed to get a wide variety of shots despite the conditions and, surprisingly, managed to stay dry. We walked around the domain first and found deer in the field above the trees and then backtracked to where we could see the stags and hinds below us where we had a couple of good vantage points from around the road network.

We then decided to go down to Muckross Park, mainly for breakfast and then hopefully find deer across the road in the field by the entrance but they too must have been sheltering from the rain in the woods so we carried on up to the Jersey boat on the Upper Lake. The boat was not in an ideal position so, after a few brief shots, we returned back into Killarney and captured the deer in the field across the road from the entrance to Muckross as they had, by then, decided to come out of hiding. We then visited Ross Castle but the rain continued so we took refuge in Peter Cox's gallery in Killarney and had a good look at his pictures.

Then, after a quick cup of tea in "Noelle's" tea shop, as the rain had more or less stopped, we decided to go back to the Domain for one last look as it was after 3pm and thought we might catch some action late in the day. We were lucky as the rain stopped and the light improved which allowed us get some good pictures for the last couple of hours. We left the Domain around 6pm.

So we had a very long but enjoyable day and, looking at the pictures, we all managed to get some good shots despite the conditions.

Thanks to everyone that made the trip. Same again next year ???

Click here to see the gallery of images from the shoot. Enjoy!

 - Keith Johnson