Studley Royal Deer Park

On Sunday morning I was up bright and early. At 4.30am to be precise. I was headed to Studley Royal Deer Park, which is a medieval deer park near Ripon in Yorkshire. I was accompanied by my good friend and fellow tog, Graham Binns. We were both hopeful to get some images of the deer at sunrise.

The deer park is part of the National Trust’s Fountains Abbey where the ruins of the Cistercian Abbey are set beside the grounds of Studley Royal. We travelled there because the weather report had said that it was going to be the ideal conditions for some fantastic sunrise photography.

It was still pitch black when we arrived. We got the kit together and headed out to find the deer and to wait for the sunrise. When the sun rise did appear, it offered a little bit of colour for a very small amount of time before clouding over and becoming as dull as dishwater. Not great for the type of photographs we were after. Not to be disheartened, we pressed on and made the most of our time there and captured what images we could on a somewhat dull and overcast morning.

The wildlife was stunning however. I have never in my life seen such a vast amount of pheasants, shrews, rabbits, all manor of different birds and literally thousands of magnificent deer.

We shall certainly be heading back again at some point to get the shots we had planned for.

Here are a handful of the images that I managed to acquire on the day.