Wolfgang Stalking

Photo of the Day

Today I went to Wolf Park which is one of my favorite places to make images. They opened for the season yesterday, and I was kicking myself that I did not get there sooner. On my way there I realized that the pictures might not be too great because of the heat. The wolves are still getting used to the weather just like we are, and they are not very active during the day. I really wanted to go though so I decided to just go right in. I have a membership so it really did not cost me anything to get in. I really thought that I would get shutout for the day when something interesting happened. Wolfgang and Dharma were not with the main pack, but instead briefly placed in a enclosure together. Wolfgang was happy laying underneath a tree, but Dharma was very interested in us. Our guide decided to see if we could get her to howl which we did. Her howl got the coyotes and other wolves going as well. Wolfgang being the alpha male decided to get up to see what all the fuss was about. I made this picture of him as he was walking back to his spot to lay down. He was only walking towards me for a moment, but that was all that you need.

Technical Data

I made this image with my 70-200mm lens. I had my extender in my pocket, but I was trying to shoot at f/2.8. I have really come to love the bokeh in the background when shooting that high. To get this image how you see it above I performed a crop to the original. I decided that this would look great as a portrait so I used the x key to swap the image. I then tried a couple of presets in Lightroom to see where they got me. I really liked how the HDR black and white preset by Matt Kloskowski looked. I started there, and then adjusted the sliders to see if I could get an image that I liked. I like how this turned out. I would like to get into the enclosure someday though so that I can get a view of the wolves without having to shoot through a fence. Maybe next winter.