A wolf in wolf’s clothing.

Grey Wolf, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.

A rather dramatic photograph I think you’ll agree, and one I absolutely love! For some reason I have an aversion to werewolf movies, even the rather laughable ones (by today’s standards) with Lon Chaney in, having lived very close to a zoo that had timber wolves who’s howls I could hear on an evening (the only thing I can put it down to – oh and that encounter with one on a lone Yorkshire moor, followed by it’s reappearance in London) – but this one,for me, should be a blueprint for any future films with aforementioned fictitious monster.

Food had been put out for the wolves by the keepers in one of two enclosures that the wolves inhabit, the wolves paced back and forth in a second spacious area (normally they can access both areas and they are only partitions when the keepers need to have access to one of the areas) in anticipation, being able to see and smell the vittles. With grey clouds overhead, I could only hope that the high ISO I was using would be enough to produce some half decent shots.

With the keepers safely out of the enclosure, the diving wall was removed and the animals sped into their second space straight for their sustenance. There’s a reason “wolfing it down” has found it’s way into every day parlance when referring to people eating their meals very fast – it’s exactly what wolves do, in fact you could probably get Dyson to sponsor the wolves as the wolves are as quick and efficient at hoovering up food as Dyson’s vacuum cleaners!

I did move half way through photographing these magnificent animals, as the weather had brightened up and an area to the back of the enclosure that was favoured by the leader of the pack, Parker, was being nicely lit, however the photos on flickr today were all in the areas with lower light areas. If anything, this did help with the possible issue of contrast, and as the final images are more than pleasing to the eye I couldn’t and wouldn’t have wished for any difference.

With recent photo sessions, I’ve become quite fond of Wolves (not F.C.) and whilst they don’t have the charisma of one of the Big Cats, being a pack animal the social politics are always fascinating to watch. As the latin family name, Canis, wolves are the forebears of the domestic dog even so, there’s no way I would throw one a stick or expect it to respond to the command “SIT”.

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