RUNNER-UP CATEGORY MAMMALS
Aare Udras| Young Wolf (Canis Lupus)

Name: Aare Udras
Picture title: Young Wolf (Canis Lupus)
Category: Mammals
Nationality: Estonia
Occupation: I`m just a hobby photographer. Mine occupation is real estate consultancy – development, project management.

Technical information
Camera: Nikon Z7
Lens: Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED, at 26mm
EXIF: 1/200 sec at f11  •   ISO 6400
Accessories: 2x Nikon SB28 flash, Camtraptions camera housing and PIR trigger, tripod

Aare Udras says:

I love nature photos of different species showing their living style in their natural habitat and natural conditions. To see and show it to others, it often needs pretty close wide angle shots. As photography is all about light, light is a key factor for those shots as well. Also technically, as most of the predator’s activity is taking part in dark or totally dark conditions. It is pretty difficult to make such photos, especially of the species who are not very common and are very careful, like the wolves. In Estonia (Europe) there are around 200-300 wolves. Around 100-130 of them are hunted annually.  

In my surroundings the Wolf (Canis Lupus), is the most intelligent animal, with extremely well developed senses. They also learned to read and understand human activities and whon always has situations under his control. All that makes photographing them a great challenge. I am the happy one, I have seen them.

As I have been looking around for a few years in that area, I knew that the year before, the wolf’s litter was nearby. I started to look for possible bottlenecks on their routes and discovered this small ditch with several beaver dams and a beaver lodge. The beaver is also on the wolf’s menu… I took the chance and installed a camera trap with flashes on the beaverdam. 

In about 6-7 months I`ve got lucky, by getting this picture. Actually this young wolf photographed herself, letting me have a recording. The photo is taken in the eastern part of the Estonian forest area in September around 4am. This photo shows well how relaxed the wolf is, even while jogging on the beavers dam in absolute darkness. She probably did not find any beaver around, so she returned the same way back in about 7-8 minutes. 

Using a camera trap – you are principally trying to create in your mind all the possible situations, variations and making the compromise to find a suitable site. Choosing focus point, lighting options, settings etcetera in manual mode and hoping something similar to happen. The forest is gracious…