The stories behind the image

Urban nature, by Toby Melville: A male red deer, with antlers covered in bracken, walking through undergrowth in Richmond Park in south west London. Although the park is only 9.5sqkm wide and 650 deer graze there during the autumn deer rutting season, I spent nine hours on foot with my 500mm lens as well as shorter optics following the haunting and spine-tingling barking of the male deer, trying to find strong images of animal behaviour combined with attractive light and backgrounds. The mist had long gone and the sun was dipping towards the horizon when I found this male in the undergrowth. I think the bracken stuck among the antlers gives the picture a certain appeal by adding a little humour to a natural history photograph, with a hat-like appearance, plus the tongue out looks a little as if the deer is licking his lips – Reuters photos

Photographers explain how and why they captured these images, and how some of them felt as they clicked their shutters. All photos from Reuters.

1 Urban nature by Toby Melville (pictured top): A male red deer, with antlers covered in bracken, walks through undergrowth in Richmond Park in south west London. Although the park is only 9.5sqkm wide and 650 deer graze there during the autumn deer rutting season, I spent nine hours on foot with my 500mm lens as well as shorter optics following the haunting and spine-tingling barking of the male deer trying to find strong images of animal behaviour combined with attractive light and backgrounds. The mist had long gone and the sun was dipping towards the horizon when I found this male in the undergrowth. I think the bracken stuck among the antlers gives the picture a certain appeal by adding a little humour to a natural history photograph, with a hat-like appearance, plus the tongue out looks a little as if the deer is licking his lips!