Wolf Park – A Great Place to Photograph and Learn About Wolves

Wolf Park, located in Battle Ground, Indiana (near Lafayette) is a non-profit organization dedicated to behavioral research and education about wolves. It is worth a visit to see the wolves up close, and understand more about wolves and their behavior. It is a great opportunity for wildlife photographers to get pictures of wolves that would be next to impossible to get in the wild.

In this blog post, I will tell you about my wolf photography experience from my two photography sessions at Wolf Park, give you some tips on photographing wolves, and share some of my wolf pictures.

About Wolf Park

Wolf Park was founded in 1972. It is a 75 acre conservatory for wolves, coyotes, foxes, and bison. The park currently has 14 wolves, not all of them are behaved well enough to visit with humans including Wolfgang the alpha male.

The Wolf Photography Experience

A regular adult admission is $8 and includes a guided tour. However, a regular admission will not get you into the enclosure with the wolves. You will only be able to see them through the fence. To get in with the wolves, you need to attend a wolf photography seminar, a wolf behavioral seminar, sponsor a wolf, or a schedule a private group tour. Our photography club scheduled a private session for wolf photography. You need a minimum of 7 attendees for a private session. Wolf photo shoots and private photography sessions cost about $300 per person. To me, it was worth it to be up close with the wolves inside the enclosure.

Prior to the wolf photography session, you will need to attend a training session. The session takes close to an hour and a half. By the time the training ends, most of the good morning light has passed. You will be in with the wolves for two sessions, morning and afternoon. The better bet is the afternoon session which ends about 45 minutes prior to sunset. Both sessions that I attended were in the fall when sunset was around 5pm. There were 3 – 6 wolves to photograph in each session and three staff members will accompany you in with the wolves. The staff members are good at observing the wolves behavior and will coach you in interacting with the wolves.

Equipment

Tripods and camera bags are not allowed in the enclosure with the wolves. Also, no food, beverages, or candy is allowed in with the wolves. The staff members said the wolves may mug you for it. I only took my Canon 5d Mark iii with the Canon 70-200mm lens in with the wolves. Some people had two camera bodies. One with a 70-200mm and one with a shorter focal length lens for close up wolf photos.

Written by Martin Belan

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