In the Field

Beach Bums - Great Bear Rainforest Style. Northern British Columbia Coast, Canada. September 19, 2024.

What do YOU think of when you hear the words "white-sand beach"? I'm sure almost everyone would have a slightly different answer, but many would include the concepts of "vacation" or "beach volleyball" or "drinks with little umbrellas"...or something similar. But I'm willing to bet very few folks would think "Oh, white-sand beaches are great places to watch and photograph Gray Wolves!" Conversely, when folks think "Gray Wolf" I doubt many picture them in their mind playing on white-sand beaches! Yet on many of the remote islands on the outer central and northern BC coast there are white-sand beaches, and the primary users of a lot of these beaches are coastal Gray Wolves. Think about that for a minute - expansive, beautiful beaches utilized primarily by top-level carnivores - and NOT Hairless Beach Apes. There's not many places left in the world where you'd see a scene like the one above (unless you have a time machine and can go visit the beaches of Washington, Oregon, and California about 400 years ago). And people wonder why I focus my wildlife photographic efforts in the Great Bear Rainforest! Duh...

This Gray Wolf animalscape is one of the first shots I captured during an extended session of photographing 6 members of a family group (AKA "resident pack") of wolves on a very remote island on the northern BC coast. The two wolves here are pups that are about 6 months old and still in the very playful stage. During the encounter the 3 pups (only two are shown in this image) played with each other and any interesting object they could find on the beach. And, I can confirm that - like young dogs - wolf pups do get the "zoomies." 😉

Detailed-oriented viewers of this image may notice a couple of technical things about the image capture specs. First, I used 3D-tracking on my Z9 when I captured this image. Overall 3D-tracking is my most used AF-area mode on my Z9's (as well as on my Z6II). In this particular case the aspect of 3D-tracking that was most useful was how well it holds the subject - and allows you to focus on a subject and then recompose the image (moving the subject pretty much anywhere you want in the frame without losing focus). Second, I used "Birds" subject detection mode on this image (rather than animals). Why? Well...I do know that wolves are not birds. But I have found countless times that when I'm photographing mammals the Birds mode outperforms Animal mode when the subjects are small in the frame. And by "outperforms" I mean "recognizes them faster and holds onto them better". How small in the frame? it's tough to give a definitive answer, but if the subject is only 10-20% (or less) of the frame I find Birds mode invariably works better. In this case the subjects are very small in the frame, occupying less than 1% of it.

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of these two canid beach bums enjoying some downtime on the beach:

• Beach Bums - Great Bear Rainforest Style: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 8.4 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Into the Great Bear Rainforest Exploratory Photo Adventure in late September of 2024. Each year I offer trips into the Great Bear Rainforest as well as tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Beach Bums - Great Bear Rainforest Style. Northern British Columbia Coast, Canada. September 19, 2024.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 900.

Nikon Z9 paired with Z Nikkor 400mm f2.8S. Hand-held from a floating Zodiac inflatable boat. VR on in Sport mode. 3D-tracking AF area mode with subject detection set to "Birds" mode.

1/1250s @ f3.5; No compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Beach Bums - Great Bear Rainforest Style. Northern British Columbia Coast, Canada. September 19, 2024.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 8.1 Elite (using the appropriate lens/camera optical module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Phase One's Capture One Pro (build 16.4.6). In the case of this image the only global adjustments were an overall contrast tweak (using the Levels tool) and a slight reduction in highlights. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 7 separate layers, with most of the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to clarity, highlights, shadows, etc.). The colours of the large rocks behind the beach were adjusted using a selective adjustment to the blue channel (a curves adjustment).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Beach Bums - Great Bear Rainforest Style. Northern British Columbia Coast, Canada. September 19, 2024.

Species Status in Canada*: Only Eastern Wolf listed as species of "Special Concern" in May, 2001. Other populations not listed as Endangered or Threatened.

Probably no species alive today has suffered as much direct persecution from humans as has the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus). Once extremely widespread in North America, the Gray Wolf was virtually extirpated from the contiguous 48 states of America and now is regularly found within only a fraction of its historical range in Canada. While the Gray Wolf is currently listed as endangered in most of the 48 lower states of the United States and enjoys the privileges associated with such status (if lack of persecution and abuse can be thought of as a privilege), it is still official policy in much of Canada to rid the countryside of this magnificent keystone predator. As an example, in British Columbia, there is NO closed season on the wolf in most hunting jurisdictions and opportunistic slaughter is encouraged by policy (it is the ONLY fur-bearing species for which NO species hunting tag is required in British Columbia!). Conservation of wolves presents a puzzling paradox. Reduced to the most basic principles, wolf conservation is simplistic: we need only to stop persecuting this species in order for it to survive. Yet accomplishing this invariably proves incredibly difficult - it's as though wolf persecution has been institutionalized directly into government (and societal) bureaucracy.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada