Winter Coyote
There is nothing I like better than instructing, going out with others who love the craft and sharing knowledge to help them improve is one of the most rewarding things and really does help keep my own skills sharpened. On this cold winter day in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada I was helping a friend shoot some winter scenes and we were having a great time. After shooting ice formations on Spray Lakes we set out toward kananaskis lakes to look for more of the same. Along the way we happened upon this beautiful coyote curled up on a snowbank. We were so afraid of scaring him away (wild coyotes in the mountain parks are easily spooked unlike their city dwelling cousins). We crept delicately into position raising the 100-400mm lens as I did and making adjustments to aperture, ISO and shutter speed while bringing the camera up to eye level.
As it turned out this guy was not for moving, he was tired and occasionally closed his eyes as we framed and made shots of him repeatedly for over 4 minutes until another pair of onlookers came upon us far too quickly and scared him away. With so much time to make images (4 minutes is forever in wildlife encounters) we could really think about composition and framing the shot. It was actually a difficult scene because it was 'flat', so a wider aperture was needed to separate him from the forest behind him, then dropping the horizon down to the lower third made a nice 1/3 white snow with 2/3 blurred forest for a background. Finally I decided to place him in the centre of frame rather than on one of the intersection points in a classic 'rule of thirds' because central just felt right for this shot. Ultimately this produced a seemingly simple, clean image.
So the fortunate thing here was the coyote just sitting right there in front of us for over 4 minutes and even changing his pose occasionally. But being out there in the mountains on a freezing winter day , 2 hours from home, with the equipment and the skills, knowledge and competence to use it effectively was not in any way fortunate, that takes effort and as we know, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
As it turned out this guy was not for moving, he was tired and occasionally closed his eyes as we framed and made shots of him repeatedly for over 4 minutes until another pair of onlookers came upon us far too quickly and scared him away. With so much time to make images (4 minutes is forever in wildlife encounters) we could really think about composition and framing the shot. It was actually a difficult scene because it was 'flat', so a wider aperture was needed to separate him from the forest behind him, then dropping the horizon down to the lower third made a nice 1/3 white snow with 2/3 blurred forest for a background. Finally I decided to place him in the centre of frame rather than on one of the intersection points in a classic 'rule of thirds' because central just felt right for this shot. Ultimately this produced a seemingly simple, clean image.
So the fortunate thing here was the coyote just sitting right there in front of us for over 4 minutes and even changing his pose occasionally. But being out there in the mountains on a freezing winter day , 2 hours from home, with the equipment and the skills, knowledge and competence to use it effectively was not in any way fortunate, that takes effort and as we know, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.