week 30: European wolf

We had another bank holiday this Monday past (which I'm really grateful for). I spent it going to the zoo to take photos. I always said that I didn't want to go take photos at the zoo until I had a DSLR, but then after I got mine I still didn't go because I discovered to my disgust that the London Zoo didn't have the animals I wanted to photograph. Ok, so maybe I was expecting too much - it is a zoo in the middle of the biggest city in the UK. And I've probably been spoiled being brought up in South Africa where there are lots of large zoo's and safari parks etc. Anyway, point is one of the animals I really wanted a photo of was a grey wolf. So I had to wait until I could spend 3 hours travelling to the right zoo and another 3 back.

The photo is not hugely exciting as these things go. I accept that. I have come to learn that animal photography even in a relatively enclosed space like a zoo requires huge amounts of patience. Maybe if I spent the entire day watching only the wolves I would have gotten that photo I wanted of one of them emerging from the den (the dark hole at the top right of the picture) I however was impatient and had at least 4 other animals to see still, so after an hour I left. My 70-300 mm lens, even at max didn't enlarge quite as much as I thought, but with photo's like these I can't complain. Now I just have to work on my composition (and my timing!)