My first wolf

Gallery: WildlifePosted February 3, 2013266 views6 comments

Hi everybody! This is the first wolf I've gotten to photograph. We've seen them lots in Yellowstone and a couple of times near where we live. There were a few wolves eating a carcass not too far from the road. Once this guy was done he started to trot away and then stopped long enough for me to get a picture.

I hope you like it!

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Notes from dad:

So last week I had time to process a few more of Josiah's pictures and decided to be creative and do a B&W pano. Then the next day Morkel's and Max's pop up! Hey--great minds think alike!

Actually I had to go this way more by necessity than anything else. Josiah was using Jenaya's "old" D70s and with a slight underexposure from all the backlit snow, it did not handle the exposure correction in processing well and I was left with several frustrating issues including more colour noise in the shadows than I cared to deal with. I tried a few conversions and liked this natural look with minor tweaks to improve the tones. I was tempted to increase the brightness of the snow a little more but in the end we liked this more muted look a little better. Feel free to suggest further improvements, of course!

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Nikon D70s
Nikkor AF-S 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm
ISO 400
1/3200sec @ f/5.6
handheld
cropped to app. 80% of original width
Nik Color Efex Pro 4
Nik Silver Evex Pro 2
Minor tweaks and sharpening in PS CS5

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Joe James on February 3, 2013 at 10:34 PM

You are off to one heck of a start as a budding wildlife photographer! First a nice shot of Bighorn Ram and now this cool pano of a Wolf. I think your choice of a BW Pano is spot on here. It shows the Wolf as master of its wintry domain quite well. The only think you could have asked for would have been the sun behind you instead of behind the wolf but that's the fun of wildlife, you have to work with what they give you. Well Done!

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Andrews on February 4, 2013 at 8:35 AM

Hey Josiah, and congratulations on your first wolf sighting, I saw my first wolf last year and so I know how exciting it is. Given the difficult lighting conditions I think this pano is a worthy keepsake of that encounter. Good stuff.

Registered on December 31, 2011, 45 Posts, 222 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on February 4, 2013 at 9:11 PM

Congrats on a memorable encounter and your successfully recording it! I like the pano crop and I think you put the wolf at the best place within the frame of the picture. It would have been nice to see this in a larger edition to better see the detail in the face.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on February 4, 2013 at 10:50 PM

Hey, Josiah! What a great shot! You did a good job following him through the lens so you were ready when he paused for a moment and looked back at us! I really like the contrast between the snow and the exposed earth on the bank under the wolf, and think it helps tie him into his environment in a way.

Nice one!

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on February 6, 2013 at 12:20 AM

Congratulations on your first wolf photo Josiah. I can just make out some catchlights so that helps a lot. I would like to see a bit more detail in the cutbank area however. Sure nice when the wildlife subject stops to take a look, but the important thing is you were ready when he did.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Josiah Launstein on February 19, 2013 at 12:03 AM

Thank you for commenting on my wolf picture! I hope I'll get some better ones this year!

Registered on January 26, 2013, 52 Posts, 126 Comments