Gray wolf eyes

Alpha female gray wolf, Denali National Park Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4.0L IS, 1/640 @ f6.3, ISO 400, hand held

This alpha female wolf in Denali National Park is raising six hungry pups, and frequents the park road for easy travel when hunting for food. On a quite morning before 6am, I was driving along the park road and saw her trotting towards me ahead. As is often the case in situations like this, I did my best to grab the camera and lens, get out of the vehicle and fire a few shots. Fleeting moments! There never seems to be quite enough time. In this case, the image is not razor sharp mainly because I did not have the auto focus on AI Servo, and the wolf kept walking towards so the focus was hair off. But, that 500mm IS lens is amazing, since there was no time at all to set up a tripod and learning to shoot from the hip will net some good shots. She trotted past me and then moved off into the nearby willows to hunt for her young pups.

Bell Heather & Alpine Azalea

Bell Heather and Alpine Azalea, Denali National Park, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100mm f.28 FF Macro, 1/100 sec at f7.1, ISO 400

The occupation of Nature photography provokes an observant eye. The calendar moves more in accord with blooming flowers, bird life, and the other life cycles that mark Alaska's rapid, light filled summer than it does with weekdays. As for wildflowers, there are a few species with pink blossoms that introduce the explosion of color on the tundra. One is Alpine Azalea which blooms from late May to mid June. That is the out of focus background color in this image. Backgrounds are very important especially in photographs that use controlled focus, or strong use of depth of field. This is generally the case in super telephoto and close up photography. This Bell Heather--a small, bell shaped and aromatic flower--is well contrasted by a little splash of color in the background.