Deer photobombs engagement pictures at Michigan park

Eldina Kovacevic thought she was capturing standard golden hour engagement photos last week — until an unexpected visitor walked into her camera frame.

"Just don't freak out, just stay calm —  let's not make any sudden movements," Kovacevic told her photo subjects, Dori Anne and Austin Swiercz, as a deer approached them from behind. "They were kind of scared. Dori said she could feel Austin's heart beating."

The July 23 engagement photo session took place in Saugatuck Dunes State Park, where multiple visitors have gone viral in the last month for their up-close encounters with a wild deer.

Kovacevic believes the deer was the same whitetail buck that interrupted a proposal photo shoot two weeks ago, and mingled with beachgoers over 4th of July weekend.

More:Deer hanging out on Lake Michigan beach 'shocked' everyone, metro Detroit woman says

The photographer had seen one story about the deer before her Saugatuck trip, but hadn't even considered she might have a run-in of her own.

"Going into the shoot, I didn't expect it, we didn't even think of it —  (Anne and Swiercz) didn't even know about this deer," Kovacevic said. 

Her photos capture the buck creeping up on the couple, sniffing at Swiercz and grazing at a nearby tree, all as Swiercz and Anne try to stay calm. Kovacevic said she assumed the deer would be startled or scared away when he found her group, but when he stuck around for 10 or 15 minutes, she kept shooting. 

The Department of Natural Resources has had an eye on the buck since early June, when people started reporting up-close interactions with him, DNR biologist Don Poppe told the Free Press July 9.

The animal doesn't seem sick or injured, Poppe said —  it's just overly familiar with humans.

"The deer is alert, it's not skinny — it looks healthy, in normal condition for a deer this time of year," Poppe said. "It appears to be a deer that is just used to humans and not bothered by humans — essentially a tame deer that's been habituated to human contact and it's not behaving like a wild deer would."

Poppe said humans aren't the ones initiating contact with the animal —  the deer generally approaches people and is "just not afraid of humans at all."

Kovacevic has gotten some replies to the photos telling her not to approach or pet deer, but she said her group "didn't approach it —  it approached us. It was the other way around."

"I'm reading comments where people are like, 'Well, you guys shouldn't have let it approach you,'" Kovacevic said. "I'm like, 'It was too late —  we didn't know what to do, so what else am I going to do but sit there and not make any huge, big movements to not scare the animal?'"

More: How to handle a wild deer encounter

And while most of the feedback on her images has been positive, there are a few skeptics who say Kovacevic photoshopped or altered the pictures. 

"I don't even work in Photoshop," Kovacevic said. "All my editing consists of is just enhancing the color tones and colors in the image and making everything cohesive. People are going to have their comments."

The photo shoot went on for over an hour after the deer encounter, Kovacevic said —  she still hasn't processed all the photos, but had to share a few of her favorite deer shots.

Kovacevic's Facebook post with the photos has already been shared more than 51,000 times, and her story is being featured by media like "Good Morning America" and "Insider."

"That's never happened to me, so it's just been such a cool experience," Kovacevic said. "It's crazy. I would have never expected it."

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