The Long View

Dec 6, 2023

By Christian Begeman

The latter part of November into early December brings deer hunting season to our part of the world. Growing up in rural West River, my family joined the rifle hunting season like many other friends and neighbors. One of my older brothers became our family’s mighty hunter and often I would go along as an extra set of eyes and another pair of hands to help manage the prize of a successful hunt. I wasn’t much of a hunter myself as I didn’t handle the big rifles near as much as my dad and brother, but I always did love a good set of binoculars. Which I think maybe primed me for a love of the long telephoto lens nowadays.

Dad brought home a new pair of binoculars when I was in grade school, and I was transfixed by them. I spent a lot of time looking out our front picture window towards the highway. I remember checking out the craters on a full moon and using them out in the countryside. Whether it was looking for grouse, deer or the random stray cow, binoculars became a huge help and an interesting tool that stayed in the work pickup at almost all times.

Nowadays, I substitute a long telephoto lens for binoculars to get long views across our landscapes. All the photos in this column were taken using a Canon 100-400mm telephoto lens. The majority of them also were shot with the addition of a 1.4 extender, which is a small accessory that gives you even more “zoom.” The engineering that goes into these tools gets better and better. A recent improvement is the ability to get closer focus with the newest telephoto lenses, meaning I no longer have to be up to 6 feet away to get something in focus. The distance has been cut in half, which makes birding with the telephoto lens even more fun —at least when the birds decide to let you get that close.

Late fall and early winter are the best times to look for wildlife with the trusty telephoto lens. Both whitetail and mule deer are in rut. Their usual cautiousness towards humans (and vehicles) is thrown to the wind when they catch the scent of a doe on the breeze. On Black Friday and the following Saturday of this year, I spent most of the daylight hours at Badlands National Park, Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park looking for prize bucks as well as any other wildlife that caught my eye. Two of the largest mule deer bucks I’ve ever photographed gave me a quite a show, the first as daylight faded on Black Friday in the Yellow Mounds area of the Badlands. He was trailing a doe and didn’t mind me watching as long as I stayed still atop of a nearby mound. The second was slightly smaller but still magnificent, just inside the Wind Cave boundary south of Custer State Park. It was another successful hunt with the long lens, and I can’t wait to go out and try again.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he's not working at Midco he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.