Sony Artisan Thibault Roland likes to explore different landscapes, capturing images of vibrant scenes and often stripping their colors so the viewer is forced to focus solely on the details and textures of the landscape. He recently went to take one of these landscape photographs with his Sony Alpha 1 and Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G when he noticed some movement within the framed composition.

While capturing a landscape with his Sony Alpha 1 and Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3, Sony Artisan Thibault Roland was surprised when he saw some movement in the frame.

It happened several weeks ago when Roland was leading a workshop in one of his favorite photography locations, the Palouse, which is located in Eastern Washington. “This rural area is made of gorgeous rolling hills much like those in Tuscany,” he says. “The farmers work the land tirelessly and create patterns in the fields that are unlike any others and look very abstract as seen from above. At the center of the Palouse stands Steptoe Butte State Park. It is the highest geological formation of the area and it offers quasi-aerial views of the surroundings.”

That elevated view from the park makes it an obvious stop for Roland to shoot abstract details of the landscape, such as those in his series Fractals. The series focuses on the repetition of shapes and patterns that blur our sense of scale. The images for the series combine photography and other art forms to create a world of mathematics and pure abstracts. Roland was looking for those patterns at a grand scale through the rolling hills when he noticed something.

“As I was discussing composition and suggesting a few options to the workshop participants,” he explains, “I pointed my Sony Alpha 1 and Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G combo at an interesting shape in the distance. I realized that at 200mm I could see all of these little white dots. And those small white dots that seemed to be moving in the image. It piqued my interest and I decided to zoom in all the way to 600mm. That’s when I realized these shapes were deer (see raw image below).

Photo by Thibault Roland. Sony Alpha 1. Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G. 1/500-sec., f/8, ISO 800

For fun, Roland decided to add the Sony 2X teleconverter to shoot a few additional frames. After capturing the images, he went back and looked up the distance and realized he was shooting from over a mile away.

Photo by Thibault Roland. Sony Alpha 1. Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G. 1/500-sec., f/13, ISO 2000

“This is absolutely straight out of camera. It’s from over a mile away so obviously there’s noise, but this really showcases the optical quality of the Sony Alpha 1 with the Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G. It’s crazy to me that I was shooting from that far away and I could actually see their eyes and what they were doing.”

See more of Thibault Roland’s work on his Alpha Universe Profile and on Instagram @thibaultrolandphoto.