Hangin' with Wolves
It was a great trip. The kids seemed to get a lot out of it (plus they got to leave the classroom...and who doesn't like a field trip??).
The wolves live in natural habitats. They were pretty calm that day. It was about 80 degrees and they hadn't lost their winter coats completely. One of the cool parts was when the kids howled at the wolves, which kicked started a chorus of howling back by the wolves. It was pretty amazing. One started to howl. Then another and another. They all joined in.
Shooting through the holes in the fence didn't work because there was another half-height fence between us and the wolf pens. So to get as clear a shot as possible, I used a long lens (my most favorite 70-200mm f/2.8) and looked for wolves that were not right up against the fence. The long lens let me get a closer shot from all the way back. With subjects that weren't right up against the fence, the camera focused "around" the fence. You can still see the "haze" of the fence in some of the shots. But some are pretty clear.
One of my kids had a school trip to the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ. I was lucky to be a chaperone for the trip (Lucky? Except for the noise on the bus part.)
It was a great trip. The kids seemed to get a lot out of it (plus they got to leave the classroom...and who doesn't like a field trip??).
Of course, I took along my camera and grabbed a few shots along the way.
The wolves live in natural habitats. They were pretty calm that day. It was about 80 degrees and they hadn't lost their winter coats completely. One of the cool parts was when the kids howled at the wolves, which kicked started a chorus of howling back by the wolves. It was pretty amazing. One started to howl. Then another and another. They all joined in.
The challenge for photography was that the wolves are behind a tall fence (probably a good thing - although the keepers told us that the stories of wolves attacking people are not based in reality - so maybe the fences are to protect the wolves).
Shooting through the holes in the fence didn't work because there was another half-height fence between us and the wolf pens. So to get as clear a shot as possible, I used a long lens (my most favorite 70-200mm f/2.8) and looked for wolves that were not right up against the fence. The long lens let me get a closer shot from all the way back. With subjects that weren't right up against the fence, the camera focused "around" the fence. You can still see the "haze" of the fence in some of the shots. But some are pretty clear.Sometimes the autofocus wouldn't lock, hunting back and forth between the fence and the wolf. I had to focus manually in those cases. But most times, it was able to look beyond the fence and lock on to the wolves. 
Lakota offers photographer visits where they open a special place in the fence to allow for an unimpeded shot of the wolves. Maybe I'll organize a photographer's trip in the future. They are really interesting animals...especially in person.
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