In late afternoon, my wife and I were hiking out of a Shenandoah National Park trail trying to get back to the car before the sun set. We suddenly heard a snort and noticed this buck about 15 feet off the trail. I was able to get a couple of quick shots off before he snorted a few more times, dropped his head then started heading our way. We decided to give him the right of way.
The shot was taken in low light conditions under tree cover just before 6:00 pm.
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That moment of coming across an animal as large as a deer is quite magical - and that comes across in this photo. There may be motion blur from a bit of camera shake, the focus maybe off a tad, and the composition could be better, but the sense of immediacy, of stumbling upon a part of our world that we are not normally privileged to witness is all there.
I'd have been thrilled to stumble upon this majestic fellow!! I'm guessing he didn't give you a chance for too many shots and he's well-camouflaged with his color and the similarities between his antlers and surrounding branches, so I'd do a bit more processing to bring him out better. Less saturation in the surroundings, clone out the OOF foreground leaves, maybe dodge him some and gently blur the background. Also dodge his eye to find a catchlight. But finding him and getting the shot was the hard part ;-)
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