Recently I had the privilege of photographing wildlife at Animals of Montana which is a game farm run by Troy Hyde & Tracy Krueger.

Troy trains animals to "perform" in movies and for professional photographers.

Up to this point, all my animals had been photographed in the wild, so I was a little apprehensive about how a shoot with captive animals would go.

I need not have worried, because Troy's animals are well kept and amazingly responsive to his control.

Almost all published photos of wolves and mountain lions and other shy creatures of the wild have been photographed in places like Animals of Montana. What worried me most was that my photos would all look posed, but Troy's animals are allowed to run free in wild settings or in huge temporary enclosures. At the same time, they are repeatedly brought back into camera range by Troy and his excellent staff.

The result of all this is, that, although you have animals in camera range, it is still up to you to react to animals behaving naturally and to be ready to capture the definitive moments. It is definitely a challenge, but also very rewarding, because many of the photos I got could not be duplicated in the wild even with years of effort.

If you are a professional wildlife photographer, or someone who simply enjoys photographing animals for the sheer wonder of them, I couldn't recommend any place more highly than Animals of Montana. Check out their website when you have time at: http://www.animalsofmontana.com/about_us.html