If you need a little end-of-week pick-me-up, this story should hit the spot. While out kayaking on Lake Erie with his friends, photographer Eric Tischler ran across a deer swimming away from shore, already almost a mile out. The trio immediately set about saving the poor creature, capturing photos and videos along the way.
The day started out like any other: on Tuesday May 26th, Tischler met his paddling buddies Donn Nottage and Charlie Nergelovic out on Lake Erie for a beautiful day on the water.
“I noticed a large tree sticking out of the water in the distance, so we decided to paddle out and take a closer look,” says Tischler. “Once we arrived, we were close to a mile offshore, and decided to take a rest to enjoy the scenery. That’s when things got weird.”
Weird because, now almost a mile off shore, they spotted a deer in the water… swimming north, where there isn’t land for about 50 more miles.
“I typically carry my Sony RX100 VII with me while paddling. It’s great for impromptu shots, and the 200mm of zoom is handy, especially for identifying distant objects,” he tells PetaPixel. “I pulled out the camera and took a few shots, but even at full zoom, I couldn’t immediately ID the object. When I reviewed the photos on the screen, and zoomed to 1:1, I was amazed. I yelled to Donn and Charlie, holy s**t, it’s a deer!”
Photo by Eric Tischler
Photo by Eric Tischler
“We immediately started paddling in the deer’s direction, and as we got closer, we could see it was swimming north, out into the lake, where the nearest land is Canada at over 50 miles away,” says Tischler. “My first thought was, ‘please don’t let it get tired and drown.’ My kayak is long and narrow, and I doubted I’d be able to pull the deer from the water if the situation made a turn for the worse.”
Fortunately, that wasn’t fated to happen, and Tuesday turned out to be this deer’s lucky day.
“When we finally intercepted the deer, we decided to attempt to steer him back towards land. Think of the movie City Slickers, but instead of herding cattle from horseback, we were herding a deer from kayak,” he recalls. “Fortunately, the deer’s natural instinct to evade us worked towards our advantage. We were able to get him to make a 180, and head back towards the Lake Erie shoreline.”
You can see several more videos and photos of the rescue below, all of them captured by Eric’s friend Donn Nottage. Our favorite are the three video clips from Donn’s body camera, which comes with some genuinely lovely narration as the group attempts to keep the young buck safe and steer him towards the shore:
The encounter obviously left a strong impression with Tischler, who describes himself as “a serious photography enthusiast, mainly interested in nature and wildlife, an avid kayaker.”
“The whole encounter lasted maybe fifteen minutes, but seemed a lot longer. Of course, we talked about it for the rest of the day. None of us could believe what just happened,” says Eric. “Later that night, I did a bit of reading, and learned that deer are actually very good swimmers. Their coats give them a lot of buoyancy, and their strong legs enable them to swim for reasonable distances. However, in this case, if the deer kept heading out to ‘sea,’ there’s no doubt he would’ve eventually been overcome by fatigue.”
Kudos to Eric, Donn and Charlie for acting so decisively. It’s just a shame he didn’t have his “big boy” camera with him to capture the action. He usually shoots with a D850 and 500PF lens. That said, this is one of those cases where the old saying proves to be true: the best camera is the one you have on you.
Image credits: All photos and videos by Eric Tischler and Donn Nottage and used with permission.
Continue reading...
The day started out like any other: on Tuesday May 26th, Tischler met his paddling buddies Donn Nottage and Charlie Nergelovic out on Lake Erie for a beautiful day on the water.
“I noticed a large tree sticking out of the water in the distance, so we decided to paddle out and take a closer look,” says Tischler. “Once we arrived, we were close to a mile offshore, and decided to take a rest to enjoy the scenery. That’s when things got weird.”
Weird because, now almost a mile off shore, they spotted a deer in the water… swimming north, where there isn’t land for about 50 more miles.
“I typically carry my Sony RX100 VII with me while paddling. It’s great for impromptu shots, and the 200mm of zoom is handy, especially for identifying distant objects,” he tells PetaPixel. “I pulled out the camera and took a few shots, but even at full zoom, I couldn’t immediately ID the object. When I reviewed the photos on the screen, and zoomed to 1:1, I was amazed. I yelled to Donn and Charlie, holy s**t, it’s a deer!”
Photo by Eric Tischler
Photo by Eric Tischler
“We immediately started paddling in the deer’s direction, and as we got closer, we could see it was swimming north, out into the lake, where the nearest land is Canada at over 50 miles away,” says Tischler. “My first thought was, ‘please don’t let it get tired and drown.’ My kayak is long and narrow, and I doubted I’d be able to pull the deer from the water if the situation made a turn for the worse.”
Fortunately, that wasn’t fated to happen, and Tuesday turned out to be this deer’s lucky day.
“When we finally intercepted the deer, we decided to attempt to steer him back towards land. Think of the movie City Slickers, but instead of herding cattle from horseback, we were herding a deer from kayak,” he recalls. “Fortunately, the deer’s natural instinct to evade us worked towards our advantage. We were able to get him to make a 180, and head back towards the Lake Erie shoreline.”
You can see several more videos and photos of the rescue below, all of them captured by Eric’s friend Donn Nottage. Our favorite are the three video clips from Donn’s body camera, which comes with some genuinely lovely narration as the group attempts to keep the young buck safe and steer him towards the shore:
The encounter obviously left a strong impression with Tischler, who describes himself as “a serious photography enthusiast, mainly interested in nature and wildlife, an avid kayaker.”
“The whole encounter lasted maybe fifteen minutes, but seemed a lot longer. Of course, we talked about it for the rest of the day. None of us could believe what just happened,” says Eric. “Later that night, I did a bit of reading, and learned that deer are actually very good swimmers. Their coats give them a lot of buoyancy, and their strong legs enable them to swim for reasonable distances. However, in this case, if the deer kept heading out to ‘sea,’ there’s no doubt he would’ve eventually been overcome by fatigue.”
Kudos to Eric, Donn and Charlie for acting so decisively. It’s just a shame he didn’t have his “big boy” camera with him to capture the action. He usually shoots with a D850 and 500PF lens. That said, this is one of those cases where the old saying proves to be true: the best camera is the one you have on you.
Image credits: All photos and videos by Eric Tischler and Donn Nottage and used with permission.
Continue reading...