Reflections on 2022
My golden doodle contributed to the inspiration of this post with her reflection in my entryway, which was taken with my new RF 50mm 1.2 lens. You may wonder why someone focused on wildlife photography needs a 50mm lens. Well, I’ve read that it makes a good portrait lens, more on that later.
2022 ended up being a great year from a personal, professional and photography perspective.
On of the highlights from this year included taking the dive into mirrorless photography in March with getting a Canon R3. I’m loving the features in mirrorless cameras and haven’t touched my 1DX III since picking up my R3. I’m really glad that I didn’t wait for the R1 to come out.
Took a couple of amazing trips to Yellowstone in January and Alaska in June. This was my 4th trip to Yellowstone in winter and it likely won’t be my last as it’s such an amazing place. Got my dream shot on this trip of a black wolf staring at me with his yellow eyes.
Made my second trip to Alaska for coastal brown bear photography, which is my latest obsession. The bears were amazing, although we didn’t see the cubs like last year. However, made up for that with my first attempts at taking video with my new camera. Got some amazing slow-motion video of bears opening clams with their claws. Video adds another dimension to the storytelling of my wildlife photography, and it has been very exciting to add it to my portfolio.
After returning from Alaska in June, spent some quality time taking photos and videos at Bolivar Flats, on the Texas gulf coast. Quickly found that it was a little more challenging to take video of fast-moving birds than the slower moving bears. However, I’m very pleased with the results. Have been collecting some of my favorite bird videos to enter into the 2023 Audubon photo contest, so be on the lookout for them.
In total, made 50 trips to local areas around Houston for wildlife photography. Can’t wait to see what photo ops 2023 will bring.
The major highlight for 2022, and the reason to get a 50mm lens, is that my daughter is pregnant!! We are thrilled for Heather and Jack with their baby due in May. Next year will involve lots of baby photo shoots with some outfits already being purchased for Christmas gifts this year.
Happy New Year everyone!! 2023 is going to be amazing! Hopefully will have time for some wildlife photography. Already have two major trips planned with hopefully a third one as well. More on those later.
Yellowstone Wolves
It’s always a thrill to see a wolf in Yellowstone. Got lucky on 2 of my 4 trips to see them up close.
We saw a male black wolf and a female walking down the road on one of our trips in the snow coach. They left the road and went into the woods. We drove past the crowd of people trying to see them and stopped at a field next to the woods. They came out of the woods and walked parallel to the road at a distance and then came closer. Looked like they were going to give us a show by mating, but it didn’t happen.
1/1000 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, manual mode, 700mm, handheld
Here is the beautiful female.
Yellowstone in Winter 2018 – Day 2
Day 2 in Yellowstone confirmed our suspicion that the wounded bison didn’t make it as a new carcass was discovered about 25 yds from the tree where we left her the day before. As we approached the area, several wolves were crossing the road in front of us about 50 yds away. It was too dark to take photos so we got out our cell phones for some video. They went up the hill to our left to bed down with their full stomachs.
We kept pushing forward in search of frosty bison as the temperature had dipped to – 18 deg F in the park just after sunrise. We headed towards Old Faithful and found a lone bison with some decent frost on him and got some full frame shots. Kept going and found several bison a little further off of the road so we stopped to take some photos. Some hiking out into the now put us in position to get some cool shots of the group. We later found a group of bison heading towards us walking down the road that were back-lit so we bailed out of the snowcoach again. We worked along the Madison River on our way back to the wolves.
1/800 sec @ F6.3, ISO 2500, manual mode with spot metering off of the snow + 2 stops
1/500 sec @ F6.3, ISO 800, manual mode
We spotted a lone wolf at the top of the hill lying down resting with his head raised and paws out in front of him. He looked like a big puppy dot and was sleepy from having a full belly. We photographed him for quite a while until he got up and moved.
1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 200, manual mode
We headed back towards our vehicle and started eating lunch near our tripods. Food wasn’t supposed to be an element in our shooting until Jared spotted a black wolf coming out of the woods right behind us. We quickly spun around and started shooting as he moved towards the road. Got the shots while operating my camera in one hand and holding onto the sandwich and lens with the other.
It was an amazing experience to see a black wolf in the white snow at that distance. The first shot below is full frame with no cropping. He could have cared less if we were there or not as he never lost focus on his awaiting feast. Got 67 shots of him as he came down the hill and casually walked away from us down the road.
1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 200, manual mode
1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 200, manual mode
1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 200, manual mode
Thought that those were shots of a lifetime until he returned about 14 minutes later. He ran up the hill only turning his head slightly to look at us near the top as he barely acknowledged our presence. With his yellow eyes and black sculpted body, he looked like the wolves that nightmares are made of. A literal once in a lifetime experience and I’m still fired up about it.
1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 200, manual mode
Tim Timmis Photography 