This Sunday I woke up very early (4:40 AM) to drop my wife off at the San Francisco Half Marathon in which she was running. Being up before sunrise I thought it would be worth a try to go out looking for wildlife photo opportunities. Fortunately wildlife abounds here in the San Francisco bay area and it only takes a short drive to get to an area you might cross paths with wild animals.
After dropping my wife off I decided to race the runners, rather get through town and across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin county before the race began at 5:30 AM. Getting across town was quite a challenge since many of the streets were shut down for the race. A few detours later and a groggy drive out of town I ended up in the Marin Headlands.
The lighting was poor, at least in the sense of magic hour lighting, due to heavy fog. As the morning progressed though the overcast skies provided for nice even lighting. Next up was to find a subject to photograph.
Driving slowly through the Marin Headlands it’s easy too come across wildlife. Drive too fast and you’re likely to either scare them off or worse run them over. The later definitely doesn’t make for great photography.
On this morning I happened across and tracked a coyote. Seeing as how coyotes have been in the news here in San Franciso it was very timely to be able to photograph one in the wild. They’re truly amazing creatures and are very timid. I was very lucky to be able to get close enough with out startling him/her and got some relatively decent photos. After photographing this coyote my feelings about the coyotes killed in Golden Gate Park became more intense. I look forward to seeing and photographing more wild coyotes in the future and home that the Department of Fish & Game adopt a more sound policy in their management.
[tags]photograph, photo, coyote, wildlife, San Francisco, Marin, headlands, wildlife[/tags]
Hi Jim,
I’ve never posted here before but I’ve enjoyed your blog for some time now.
I like your recent coverage of the coyotes of San Francisco and thought I might offer you a different photographic perspective to think about.
For every coyote you might see during the day you may see five to ten more in the night. For the past year I have been photographing a pack in the western metro area of Denver at twilight and at night. Images can be seen in my photostream on Flickr.
If you are interested in entering their nocturnal world I would be happy to share what I have learned from my own visits and explain how I made the images.
Dang dude, that running coyote is an awesome image. In my experience, coyotes like being around people. Perhaps because I’ve seen people feeding them…
Hi Jim. The running shot is great, but I also love the one where he’s on the downed tree. I was over in the Ft. Cronkhite area myself on Sunday. No coyote sightings for me, though.
Miles great idea and thanks for commenting. I’ll check out your photostream to see your night photos. You might just get an email from me to get more details on your technique.
Richard… thanks. The running photo is my favorite of the set as well. Unfortunately people do feed the coyotes and that doesn’t help them in the long run. Becoming habituated to people ultimately puts them at greater risk.
John W. funny I drove out that way later in the morning, but ended up turning back up to the headlands to see if the fog was clearing. It was pea soup. Weekends that you’re in town you’ll have to drop me an email. We can make a quick wildlife run one morning.
Pingback: Landscape Photography and Nature Photography by Jim M. Goldstein - JMG-Galleries - My 10 Favorite Images From 2007