There have been some moments in my photo and video career where I really feel I’ve captured something amazing, something special, something I probably will never see again. One of these moments just recently happened to me on a foggy fall morning on Vancouver Island. I got a message one afternoon from a photographer friend Kim Kufaas who was on a boat when she spotted three wolves on a beach. She sent me the video and said “You need to see if you can photograph them!”
I packed my gear for the next morning and headed out with a new friend Michael from Island Wildlife Photography.
After about a 30 minute hike into the general location, we popped out on the beach. We turned the corner and just as we did, right in front of us two coastal sea wolves spotted us. One ran away immediately and the other we thought had as well. As we both scrambled for our gear out of our bags, we looked up and saw that one of the wolves had come back to get a closer look at us. I cranked my ISO to 5000 and sprayed and prayed that I got one good shot of this wolf as it popped up onto a log to scope us out.
I got only 3 usable shots from what turned out to be maybe a ten second encounter.
If this was the only photo I got from that morning I would have called the morning a success. On Vancouver Island it is estimated there are anywhere from 180-250 coastal sea wolves. There’s not a lot of them to start and many encounters with them are brief at best, most of the time seeing a tail heading into the forrest or from a distance on boat looking to beaches where they’re cruising for food. One picture one encounter, success.
As this happened right away, we still had the morning to film and photograph local black bears that frequent this area, so we hunkered down and waited to see if any black bears would come fishing in the river near by. Within a half hour or so a mama black bear and her cub walked out of the forrest to get their breakfast.
About an hour or so after our brief wolf encounter we saw some movement at the tree line through the fog. Could it be? Unbelievable. One wolf popped back out at the top of the river, way above us and the bears and started to make it’s way towards to river and ocean.
Further, it kept walking down getting closer and closer to the bear and its cub. I’m sure they knew each other was there but for the few moments as they both walked around the beach they seemed to ignore each other.
Then it happened. They saw each other. Immediately the mother bear turned around and started walking towards the the wolf. 100ft apart they paused and stared at each other.
Then the moment happened. The photo and moment that I’ll never forget. The wolf and bears arched opposite of each other, the bears moving up the river and the wolf moving down the river, and I snapped. Snapped a photo of a bear cub staring at a wolf staring right back as ravens flew over their heads.
Then in what seemed like a moment that went in slow motion and high speed all at once life snapped back as the baby cub ran at the wolf, followed closely by mama bear. The cub even got close enough to nip at the wolfs heel before mom came in for back up. They both chased the wolf back into the forrest, mama tree’d the bear and held guard below it.
Then they all disappeared and Michael and I looked at each other saying “Did all that just happen?”
Moments like these are why I got into photography. I’m not a wildlife photographer, but I am about capturing memories for myself and for others. This one started out for me, and morphed into something I was able to share with others as well. Im thankful for this moment. I won’t forget it.
Im thankful to have been featured on Chek news and even more amazingly the Globe and Mail for the story. Thank you to both Laura Brougham from Check and Justine Hunter of the Globe and Mail for the features in print.