While I'm not in my studio....

While I'm not in my studio, I take my camera and roam in our ten acre woods. I love to take photos of any animal that wander near. Check these neighbors out, they came by for a little salt. I placed a salt block near to see if I could take a few photos of deer. Here's a beautiful eight point buck with the wide rack near the salt block. The weather this summer in Tennessee has been rain about every three to four days. The foliage has remained lush and green. I think that this has created the perfect conditions for deer. This year is a trophy year for deer around here, I have never seen so many large rack deer!

He was traveling with this beautiful ten point buck. If you look closely, you can see that the fur fuzz still on his rack. I'm not sure how much more his rack will grow, but it's already a fine example. 

Here's a photo of both bucks looking at me. Lucky for me, they are not too skittish at this time of year. These two allowed me to snap picture after picture. I would say that in a few weeks, I won't be able to get within a 100 yards of them. 

Notice that this ten point buck is sticking out his tongue. I'm sure he's thinking "boy this salt makes me thirsty. I bet that they head down to the Sycamore Creek after getting their fill of salt.

This deer looks pretty ruff, see his back with the marks. Well, he is losing his summer coat, which will change to a darker, thicker winter coat. Molting usually starts at the end of summer and is fairly rapid.  

I grew tired of taking pictures and decided to move as close to the deer as possible. It wasn't long and the deer decided that I was too near and decided to bolt.

I hope these "big boys" come back to the salt block so that I can document the growth of their rack. While I'm not photographing deer in my ten acre woods, I'm in my studio painting lake, river and bay maps.  As you can see, my maps make great gifts for the lake house owner, lake lover, or fisherman. I have over two hundred on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalizes lake, river or bay maps, too. I have decor maps of Old Hickory, Table Rock Lake, Lake Wallenpaupack, Lake Lanier, Toledo Bend, Kentucky Lake, and many others. Oh yeah, I hide a tiny mermaid in the waters of all my maps that folks love to search for. Find out more interesting facts about my treasured maps by going to LeoMaps.com. 

Oh yeah, this is part of my studio! I think I have become a map elf!