TIMBER WOLF... and a photographer's rant

The Basic Rules of Nature Photography read somewhat like this:

Rule # 1: Have you camera near or ATTACHED to your body 24/7

Rule # 2: Check your camera settings the night before a trip.

Rule # 3: Have you batteries charged. Always carry a spare one.

Rule # 4: Carry your camera attached to a tripod.

Rule # 5: Check the memory card. Carry a spare one.

There is more but ... try to neglect only one of the above and your trip will end up as follows:

Yesterday we decided to take a trip to Halcyon Hot Springs near Nakusp, BC. Great. 

Monashee Mountains near Nakusp

So, the last night I placed my camera bag and the tripod onto the back seat of our vehicle to be ready (good girl).

Hopped into the car at 8 a.m. (OK timing) without even setting an eye on the bag on the back seat (bad girl). 

Somehow I did not believe that we would see any wildlife today (no comment).

The drive through Slocan Valley was beautiful as always and there were plenty of whitetail deer by the road but somehow I was too lazy to turn back, fish out a camera and set it on my lap (as I always do).

It was around 10 a.m. when ... a dog? ... a coyote? ... no, a wolf climbed out of the ditch adjacent to Arrow lake. 

A real, wild and pretty large gray (also called timber) wolf !!!! We have NEVER seen a wild wolf in nature before!

Now, where is my camera? 

Yes, safely zipped up in the camera bag on the back seat! The bag with all my equipment is beautifully laid parallel to the tripod waiting to be picked up and transferred to the front (and I am suffering from a pinched sciatic nerve so turning back shall be no fun)!

The wolf seems to be in no hurry - as soon as we pass, it steps onto the road. 

Meanwhile, I am frantically trying to reach back (rip the silly nerve in two if I have to), fighting not one, but a couple of sturdy zippers, pulling out the the camera with a 100 mm lens and finally (my torso twisted into a painful pretzel) managing to press the shutter: 

SHOOT first, see what you got later. Even through the rear window! Then try to get a better shot.

(Another rule)

As the car comes to a full stop the wolf pauses - a second or two. Then it resumes walking (not running) to the opposite ditch from which the forest climbs up the steep side of a mountain.

I have a feeling that the animal too, has a pinched nerve or a busted leg ... something does not seem to be right, as if he was favouring his hind leg.

I manage to get out of the car and take another shot - just when he pauses, one last time, among the trees.

The exposure seems to last way too long! 

Gone.Time to check the settings.

WHO on Mother Earth was playing with my camera? The F stop is at 29. ISO at 800! 

I swear I did not have anything to drink last night! 

In a way the ISO 800 saved at least one of my shots - the one through the rear window! 

But F 29 for a free hand .... well, I am afraid that I am too old for that.

So - the very first time we saw a wild wolf  I came home with 2 photos: 

1) A striped wolf

2) Picasso wolf

ENJOY

Striped Wolf

After talking to people at the Hot Springs we realized that the wolf, like us, was probably visiting one of the thermal streams that come down the mountain and into the lake.
It would only make sense for a hurting animal to utilize the Nature's Spa.

Piccaso Wolf
(Wondering how much they would pay me for this.)

To avoid further disappointments like this 

I promised to myself :

To buy a very large tube of Crazy Glue to make us (my camera and I) inseparable from now on.

Each and every night at 8 p.m. to check all the settings, batteries and filters in all the cameras within the 1 km radius..

To scrub each and every glass element on every lens I can find until it shines like a diamond.

To baby my tripod and carry it with me at all times.

(Yes, you guessed right: I just had a glass of wine.)

On a positive side: We saw a live gray wolf right here, in the West Kootenays and it was the sight that will always remain etched into my mind.

Slocan Valley

Gray Wolf, Canis lupus also called 

Timber Wolf.

It is native to North America and Eurasia.

The wolf story is quite well known by now, fortunately the outlook  seems to be improving.
The North American wolves have been quite abused by the European settlers, and almost wiped out (ruthlessly shot, poisoned, trapped) in most of its former habitat in the
United States.
Canadian wolves were just a bit luckier, probably only thanks to the fact that the human population here is about 10x less than that of the USA.
European Wolves  shared a very similar fate.

Fortunately the attitudes are somewhat changing and there are increasing reports of wolf sightings.
As the understanding of their behavior and biology increases perhaps the fortunes of the wolf will turn for the better.

The wolves in my three photographs are not truly wild. They were born into captivity, used in the movies and when they grew older they could not be released anywhere in the wild. There is a Refuge for Wildlife at Grouse Mountain in West Vancouver, British Columbia that offered to take these wolves in. They live in a quite a large, protected area and it is a gamble to see them. We were lucky on one occasion when they seemed to enjoy a sunny day of  Spring.