One of the best rules for photography in the Rockies is to be prepared to see wildlife at any time. It often pays to carry a camera equipped with a suitable lens to capture a random encounter with an animal. On a recent photo outing, I encountered a handsome looking coyote just begging to have his picture taken. I was ready with a telephoto lens mounted on a camera on the seat beside me. He graciously posed for me and I was able to get a number of interesting photos, this one being my favourite.
A very handsome coyote; it’s good to see them looking this healthy and well fed. But, he may be a little too habituated to humans. He was photographed on the road and showed no signs whatsoever of fear or even caution. I think he was looking for a handout, which is a “no no” . He was disappointed on this occasion and left to satisfy his hunger the good old fashioned way. Go find a roadrunner!
A little information on the camera setup to get this picture. I used a Canon EOS 40D camera, equipped with my EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens set at a focal length of 100mm. The coyote was only 4.2 m away (~13 ft) so I needed to use minimum magnification to get him framed into the picture. With the aperture set at f5.6 I had sufficient depth of field to capture most of his length quite sharply, while losing the focus in the background. There is nothing of interest in the background and by having it out of focus the image of the coyote stands out without any background distraction. The light was good, so I was able to get an exposure of 1/640 second at 400 ISO. No problems with motion blur due to a long exposure. You can’t always get the critters to stand still!
Great picture Peter
What a fabulous photograph! The coyote looks regal, not sly!
great shot Peter! Congratulations.
beautiful shot of him very good angle perfection!!
but i have a question: there seems to be a bg lump above his left leg what is that?
See what you mean, Ross but not obvious to me what it is. Glad you like the photo, sorry I can’t help with your question.