Wolf Encounter (captive)

[Christof Ruch]

Ups, my first non-bird. Makes me nervous :-)

There is a wonderful animal park within the German Bavarian Forest national park, offering great unobstructed photo opportunities on domestic wildlife, with the park being nicely embedded into the natural terrain. And ok, as the number of free-living wolves in Germany is estimated at about 30, I was totally happy to portrait this captive guy.

The photo suffers from AF-composition (central sensor), but I do like the soft light and the eye contact.

Christof

Technical info:
D70 with Tokina 300/f4 on tripod, center-weighted AP mode with -0.7EV selecting f/4 resulting in 1/200s on ISO 800. Ok, and the -0.7 EV had to be put back in when developing RAW in NC 4, plus a little dodge on his left eye and some edge-masked sharpening in CS3.

[D. Robert Franz]

You've captured some great eye contact here on a fine speciman. I like the soft lgiht. I like the position of the wolf. I think you could crop a bit off the left side of the frame. It also looks as though your plane of focus was behind the head of the wolf..

[Ed Cordes]

Really nice image of a wonderful animal in its environment. The colors look very natural. The look on the face is great. I agree the face is a bit soft focus.

[Christof Ruch]

Hi Ed, thanks for the feedback! Looking at the sensor that was activated - yes, it is actually placed on his breast. so that would place the sharpness definitely behind his head, which is what we see in the image. Sigh, got to go back there soon :-)

[Terry Eddington]

Christof, it's good to get outside of your normal "box" and any capture of a wolf is great fun. Unlike Robert who suggested a bit of a crop, I think he looks a little cramped overall, especially at the bottom, but it's just one opinion.

[Christof Ruch]

Hi Terry, Robert, thanks for your input on the crop here! I do like it as is, but if I could have done I would rather have gone wider as Terry suggested. But, sigh, using that prime...