Today we took a trip out to the Wolf Conservation Trust at Beenham for their open day. They’re not usually open to the general public, so the place was very busy. We took our cameras, and so did almost everybody else, but we were saddened to notice that the bigger the lens, the ruder the person behind it. Admittedly it was quite a difficult place for taking photographs. The wolves were often lying down in the long grass, so it was difficult to see them, and in most areas they were behind two layers of chain link fence which makes for irritatingly obscured pictures. But we saw people barging to the front of queues, pushing small children out of the way, hogging the limited space on the viewing platforms with tripods, and generally moaning that they weren’t able to get that elusive perfect shot. One man was even complaining that the birds of prey display had been set up “all wrong” because he couldn’t get a picture of a peregrine falcon without the owners’ vehicle behind it – as though the entire event should have been rearranged for his benefit!
I must admit that I was feeling a bit grumbly myself. I’m not very good at taking photos through wire mesh, I didn’t really have a long enough lens, and it’s difficult to manoeuvre an SLR and a walking stick at the same time. So I made an active decision that I didn’t want to turn into one of those whingeing photographers, and had a much nicer afternoon as a result. It was much more satisfying simply watching the wolves and the birds without squinting through a viewfinder and worrying about depth of field.
Much as I love taking photos (and you can see the ones I did manage to take over here), sometimes it’s nicer to put the camera away and simply look at the world. If you really want to take photos of wolves, the Wolf Conservation Trust run special photography days, where they’ll bring the wolves right out so that you can interact with them and get your perfect pictures without the fences being in the way.
We came back via something I wish I had taken a photo of – a lovely cream tea at The Spring in Sulhamstead. Two scones with jam and clotted cream, two pots of tea and two big slices of cake. Just what we needed to cheer ourselves up on a Bank Holiday afternoon.