Canis latrans

This coyote is an education ambassador at the Sulphur Creek Nature Center in Hayward, California.

It can be just as exciting and challenging to photograph a captive animal as a wild one.

I've been trying for years to capture an expressive portrait of this wily coyote. A lot of planning and preparation went into this image. I visited many times to learn this animal's habits, and how the light moves across the enclosure. I also had to be able to easily operate my camera under a variety of conditions, and be able to select and manually adjust the settings quickly and confidently.
Then I had to be patient and wait for the moment when everything came together.

I like to visit Sulphur Creek Nature Center late in the afternoons, when the sunlight is low-angled and the animals are beginning to stir after their siestas. This coyote and his companion are very shy and prefer to stay in the shadows. On this day, he was dozing in a ray of sunlight, so I used spot metering. Since he's inside a fenced enclosure, I used aperture priority mode at f 3.7 to blur out the heavy wire fence. When he awoke, he licked his lips, and I squeezed the shutter. Well worth the wait!