Photographer Encounters Magnificent White Stag

A photographer has captured stunning photos of a majestic, ultra-rare white stag after a long search for him.

Brian Johnston knew that the albinistic red deer, known as a white hart, was in his local area and went looking for it last weekend, hoping to get a great picture.

“In the last couple of years, me and a friend of mine have spent a lot of time going out trying to find them,” Johnston tells PetaPixel over the phone.

“We went out on Saturday morning and had seen him for the first time this year for the rutting season. But it was pretty windy, so he got wind of us and ran off.”

But the photographer went out with his friend the following day, Sunday, and spotted him asleep in a field.

“I think he had been up all night on the rut, so he was pretty exhausted, right in the middle of the field,” says Johnston. “We managed to get fairly close to him. We watched him for like 30 minutes, and he eventually got up, and that’s when I managed to get all the good pictures.”

Johnston says that he sees white stags every year during rutting season and has “become accustomed to them.” But the first time he ever laid eyes on one a couple of years ago, his reaction was, “What the heck is that?”

Nevertheless, the white stag that Johnston photographed is thought to be an albinistic red deer, which is “very very unusual,” according to Charles Smith-Jones, technical advisor at the British Deer Society.

Johnston shot the photos with a Nikon D780 and a Sigma 150-600mm, with the long lens at the 600mm end.

He tells the BBC that he shot a lot of photos of deer in the four years since he took up wildlife photography.

“I’m out most weekends, especially when the stags come out of hiding,” he says. “I saw this one last year, but it’s bigger now, with more spikes on its antlers.”

To see more of his nature photos, head to Johnston’s Facebook page.

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Image creditsPhotographs by Brian Johnston