Wildlife photography requires a lot of patience to get the perfect shot.
This is the moment a breathtaking image was taken of a stag in the wild among a thick carpet of ferns.

Unfortunately, not all the photographers out that day got so lucky, as this particular one missed out on the perfect photo opportunity with a stag standing right behind him.

He had his camera lens facing the wrong way! It seemed he was completely oblivious of the majestic stag standing right behind him in Busy Park, west London.

The photographer was in no doubt kicking himself for missing out on the ‘money shot’ after being too engrossed in something else in the distance.

The photos in this article were taken by Roger Clark, a keen wildlife photographer who was out looking for red deer to photograph.

“We hadn’t covered the red deer breeding season this year and with rutting continuing we thought we would try our luck,” said Roger.

He continued: “We spotted a man with a camera mounted on a tripod intently focused on some deer activity in the ferns in front of him unaware of the large animal behind him.”

“Given the angle, I was positioned, it looked like the stag was nuzzled up to pick a pocket from his jeans so I took a photo as it looked comical.”

“But it was quite bizarre that a wild animal would be so close without being noticed.”

“A few seconds later the deer backed off and with those large beautiful shiny eyes seemed to look at the photographer and say ‘your model is right behind you! Am I not good enough for you?”

“The photographer never did realize the opportunity he missed and the red deer and I collectively gave up and wandered off in different directions.”