IWN occasionally publishes work from wildlife photographers whose images and stories deserve a wider audience. This is one of those.
About the photographer
Hubert Mielnik is a Polish wildlife and nature photographer based near Kampinos National Park, west of Warsaw. He works close, he works patient, and he is clearly willing to suffer for a good frame. You can see more of his work at hubertmielnik.pl and on Instagram at @hubert_mielnik.
A Night on the Edge
In his own words — Hubert Mielnik
Together with Tomek — a photographer who, like me, enjoys a tough challenge — we set off for a two-day outdoor shoot in Kampinos National Park. The plan was simple: camp out and photograph wild deer during the rut. In such a vast area, though, finding the right spot and predicting where the animals will appear is far from easy.
It was Wednesday, around 27°C — decidedly too warm for the peak of the rut. After two hours of hiking we reached our chosen area, passing a cycling group and two stags along the way. We were in the right place. The cyclists, however, seemed entirely unbothered by the significance of either.
We turned in around 10 PM to the sounds of a dozen stags roaring in the dark, near and far. I’d brought along a portable bird-watching hide — lightweight, quick to set up, seemingly ideal for a single night. The problem arose a few hours later.
Around 1 AM, a downpour. Water came in through the camera ports; the charger and power bank were practically floating. I tucked the batteries into the only dry, warm place available — my underwear — and spent the rest of the night trying to sleep with a Canon R5 and 400mm lens pressed against my chest, like Tutankhamun guarding his greatest treasures.
By morning, the grass was another obstacle. Too tall to shoot through sitting, too conspicuous to stand. So I knelt — poised, as I later described it to Tomek, as if for First Holy Communion — and spent forty minutes listening to the roars draw closer.
Then a hind stepped out of the thicket, scanning the open ground. A powerful stag followed. She set the pace; he kept step. When she suddenly arced wide and came running straight towards me, the stag close behind, I started shooting.
I walked away with nearly 1,300 frames and the quiet certainty that the soaked hide, the flooded tent floor, and the batteries in my underwear had all been worth it. Those few minutes turned out to be the best photo session of my life so far.
All photographs © Hubert Mielnik. Used with permission. Licensing enquiries: hubertmielnik.pl