Staring Contest

Photo of the Day

Thursday I took my stepdaughter to Wolf Park for the first time. Wolf Park is a great place for me to just go and relax. I love to watch the wolves, and occasionally make a couple of pictures of them. The main enclosure was being mowed while we were there so there were no wolves in there. That makes for a very boring beginning of the tour. I have been on many tours so it did not bother me. I was the only one in the group who had been there before so for the others they didn’t really get the full experience. As we walked around the facility you finally got to some creatures. The coyotes for once were just chilling out. They are usually very nervous animals, but for some reason the mowers seemed to calm them. Once we hit the ‘retirement community’ I was able to see old favorites like Wotan, Wolfgang, and Dharma. Next to them Renki was having fun tormenting Wotan through the fence. The real attraction though is the pups. I say pups because that is how I know them. They are now two years old, and really anything but pups. Fiona is not as dark as her mother was, but she is still something to see. She is the wolf pictured above who decided to stare me down. I love this look from the wolves because it makes such great photos. For some reason the eyes just seem to pierce you.

Click for Wolves

As with all of the pictures that I make available from Wolf Park this one can be purchased. With most of my other images when you purchase them by clicking on the image the money goes directly to me. When you purchase an image from Wolf Park I give that money back to them so that they can keep the park up. This fall I would like to go into the enclosure with the wolves to make some photos. I may do something special with those.

Technical Data

I only took one setup to the park with me. I took my 5DMarkIII, and my 300mm lens. I have never had that long of glass in the park before. I have had an extender on my 200mm mounted on the 60D which was technically longer, but nothing this long at f/2.8. The bokeh at f/2.8 is pretty great. Behind Fiona you just get a creamy green background which I love. I think that it makes her stand out a bit. I was having some fun with my stepdaughter showing her how I make the fence disappear with my camera. It really is a cool trick that even still makes me wonder. Even with the 300mm lens I had to crop in quite a bit to get this photo. With landscape work I do not really like to crop. I will crop my older work, but for the newer stuff I like to compose it right in the camera. With wildlife and sports I have come to realize that you cannot always get to where you need to be to make the photo so cropping is another tool to use.