Just back from 5 nights in Finland shooting bears and despite the sleeping arrangements in the hides I am KNACKERED! Snorting, breathing, digging bears a foot from your head tend to wake you in the night :)
Anyway, one night I chose a hide closer to the tree line in case a wolf appeared, I already had enough bears from the site. Low and behold a wold appeared, at first I thought it was someone dog but those eyes are unmistakable. He was very interested in the bears, less so in their food, and kept jumping to get a closer look over the vegetation. Light was bad and he was not very close.
1DX, ISO2000, 500+TC @ f6.3, 40% crop, using Wimberley attached to a metal base in the hide.
Bears are baited with salmon carcasses and dog biscuits but the wolves rarely eat anything in summer months, apparently they get lonely or find safety near the bears (4 eyes are better than 2 I guess) if they are lone travellers. The wolf did indeed not eat he followed the bear back into the forest.
Fantastic animal, and I love the pose you've captured. I might be tempted to crop just a little closer to lose about half of the foreground mush. Sounds a great experience though
Hey up matey, nice to see you plumping for the 1DX, heard you were travelling out with it, you will love it with the 200-400 .
Like the comp, colours and trailing water. The -1 gave you a bit more SS, albeit not much 1/250, however you could have gone to 6400 no issues. Sounded like you had gone to where I tried in 2005, but from a conversation that's not the case. Personally I think you could afford to lose about 12-15mm off the foot without hurting the image, but your call. Hope to see some more interesting subjects from the trip, hopefully you got one particular animal, if so, bet the size impressed you .
Nice going, Neil ! I love the way you caught the wolf coming up out of the brush.
I agree with those suggesting losing some of the foreground blur.
If the image were mine, I'd take what you may consider to be a radical approach, and completely re-think my expectations for the image.
In fact, I would eliminate most all the foreground OOF at the bottom of the image, and turn it into a much stronger and less distracting pano aspect ratio.
That's what I would do if I had my photo editor's hat on.
Hi Neil - Great to see a wolf. I love how you captured him mid leap or stride. Interesting about not eating and using the bears for protection. I agree with the crop suggestions to take at least some of the fg mush away but I also understand not wanting to pixel bash and crop too much.
Love the dynamic pose of the leaping wolf and the unusual white coat that makes the animal stand out so well from the bkgd! Good for you to capture this. I agree with cropping away about half of the foreground blur. The entire experience sounds incredible!
WOW!!! A dream for me to see Wolves' in the wild. Great use of the surroundings with super action and pose captured...If i had to recommend anything for my taste it would be to take about 1-2 cm off the bottom. Very nice Neil!
Andreas, the area is mostly for bear viewing. A wolf, usually this one this year will arrive maybe once a week, simply as a territorial check. The wolves are fantastic hunters and are quite happy to find their own prey. Winter is the better time for wolves and wolverine but of course the days are short, but the bears are missing. I guess the biggest problem is location, they have been doing bears for 20 years in that area and so there are already many pictures out there (but lets be honest, African wildlife is no longer unique either). I think if you main goal is bears, will post in due time, then Finland is maybe one of the better places within 2 or 3 hours flight of Germany. I can send the details via PM if you are interested.
Sorry to come in so late, I could not resist a little comment here, if only to tell you how much I like this! I too would love to see you crop closer, if only to get a better view of this beautiful animal and that magnificent eye! Brilliant capture, congratulations!!!