Four and a half years hitting the wilderness outside Ely hard, hard, hard, and I've gotten pictures of wild wolves exactly three times. One set over a kill, one very fast grab shot posted a few weeks back here of a wolf full of mange. And now, these.
I encountered this black wolf near Moose Lake out the Fernberg Road this afternoon. I was 20 yards away. It didn't seem bothered by that one single bit. I've never been this close to a wild wolf (that I knew about, anyway), and at 1/100 sec it was hard to hold steady enough to get good images.
Blackie stayed with me only about 10 seconds in view, but it was a 10 seconds I'll never forget. Now, these are not homeruns. I could ask for a better background and foreground, or for a bit longer to work with Canis lupus, but you don't dictate terms to a wild wolf, you're just happy it happened. And thank God for the zoom. If I'd been stuck with the 400 prime, I would have been able to get nothing but tight shots (not that I'd be complaining.)
Both with the Canon 30D and Canon 100-400L IS, iso400, 1/100 at f7.1, handheld, evaluative metering, Al servo focus mode (I saw something black coming through the woods and knew it was a bear or a wolf, so quickl bumped up from iso200 to iso400 and from One Shot to Al servo).
Full-figured fella (or gal; looks more like a female to me)
260mm
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Two steps TOWARD me, and the patented head-down stare. I don't care how much you want to be close to wolves. When one is this close, sees you, and takes some steps toward you, a person starts to wonder a little bit.
400mm
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