Wolf: Blacktail Plateau, Yellowstone National Park, October 2024 — I always feel the need to apologize for these photos. Even though it was a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with a wolf, I know I was in the wrong place at the right time. No one with any sense allows a wolf to come this close…about 3 yards…but she snuck up on me, coming up the back side of the ridge while I was sitting just down from the brow. By the time others alerted me to her presence and I stood up, she was right there, cresting the ridge. Too late to run (and that would have been the worst of ideas anyway) I simply tried to keep the camera steady and thought “I’m not in your way, just go around me”. I did not feel threatened in any way…and I would like to think she didn’t either, and she did turn and walk around me, keeping that 3 yard distance. Lots of head-shots…only cropped for composition, so full frame really with the Sony a6700 and the Tamron 50-400 Di iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. (And glad for them because I certainly could not have thought about what I was doing at that moment any more than to point and shoot.) Processed in Photomator.