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Portrait of a Wolf



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This is Aidan, an Ambassador wolf at the International Wolf Center in Ely, MN

This is Aidan, an Ambassador wolf at the International Wolf Center in Ely, MN
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2 Comments | Report
Rangerfan65 Platinum
 
Rangerfan65 February 12, 2016
Awesome shot Scott! It makes me feel as if he is actually in front of me staring at me as if I was an elk. lol
The whole gallery is filled with great shots. Nice work I enjoyed the visit and will be back to see what else you eventually add. Keep up the great work - John in New York
sbmasterpieces Platinum
sbmasterpieces February 18, 2016
Thanks for the kind words.
pacinodeppfan1
 
pacinodeppfan1 June 05, 2017
Stunning!
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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at the International Wolf Center in Ely. My wife, son and I first visited the center in 2006 and 1 look at these magnificent creatures up close changed our lives. Since then we visit twice a year (summer and winter) and I spend the day watching and photographing the exhibit pack. This photo is of Aidan, a male Rocky Mountain subspecies of the Gray Wolf and was taken in 2014 when he was 6 years old. He was the pack leader from 2009-2018 and passed away in the summer of 2020 at age 14.

Time

This was taken in March as the sun was setting behind the center.

Lighting

It was taken during the last hours of a winter sun

Equipment

This was taken using a hand held Canon T3I with a 250-250 AF lens at 250mm. The settings were 1/1600 @ f8

Inspiration

I was looking for a specific shot and that was the the sun setting in the background. I got myself positioned in a place the wolves always go and waited anxiously as the sunlight began to fade. I got a few shots off but was not happy with the results and as I was about to give up, Aidan came into frame and gave me the perfect, most majestic pose I could ever have asked for.

Editing

This is a color image file made grayscale and is cropped from a horizontal 3/4 pose

In my camera bag

When photographing the wolves I have with me a Canon 80D with a 25-250mm lens attached as well as Canon T3I with a 28mm lens for those shots when the wolves come up to the viewing windows. Both cameras are equipped with vertical grip battery packs

Feedback

The IWC has large viewing windows and all of my images are shot though glass. I look for clean spots to shoot through and stay at a low angle to be eye to eye. I shoot with a lens hood and the lens pressed up against the glass to avoid any reflections and dirt or dirty spots in the glass. Normally, I keep both cameras set in AV at around 8-5.6 and switch to TV at around 1/125-1/60 when the sun sets and the light fades. The key is to always be ready for anything and pay close attention to the wolves' behavior to anticipate shots. Unless I am trying to catch action, I do not fire off a series of frames and each image is carefully framed and captured.

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