An adolescent Red Deer stag looks out onto the grassland between feeding periods. I felt that by shooting in black and white, you sense the texture of the deer's fur and antlers, which are currently in the stage where they are 'in velvet'.

The red deer antler cycle begins with casting between March and May, are in velvet between May and August, before the velvet withers and falls off with the help of the deer rubbing it off between September and March. The antlers are subsequently described as 'clean'. A drop in testosterone levels after the rutting season causes the antlers to fall off eventually.

Six species of deer live freely in the British countryside. Only red deer and roe deer are truly indigenous. Fallow deer were almost certainly introduced by the Normans, while three Asiatic species, Reeves' muntjac, Chinese water deer and sika deer, arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This photo was published in the August 2020 issue of The Wild Planet Photo Magazine.