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Just Try and Steal It !

Gallery: Regional: UKNPPosted August 4, 2011147 views6 comments

I've been spending a fair bit of time on Red Squirrels this summer from my new hide. Its a time when they are often neglected as a subject as the adults are in moult. However, I've been privileged to see some amazing behaviour including their high speed courtship chases, mating and the appearance of fully tufted and tailed youngsters.

This is a pregnant female (probably in the drey giving birth by now) who was very partial to walnuts. She was quite vicious in her defence of such a prized meal. Would you cross her?

1D4 500mm ISO:800 1/1000 sec @ f/4
full frame (but in 7x5 format) beanbag in hide.

please see the large version and there's some more images of the Squirrels on my blog.

Thanks for looking.

Simon

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on August 4, 2011 at 11:27 AM

Simon you have certainly got some detail even in it's eye and the colours look good i like it!

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by David Taylor on August 4, 2011 at 3:01 PM

Now this would be brilliant in 3D. Try taking two images (in very quick succession) using the "cha-cha" method and combining them in StereoPhotoMaker to produce an anaglyph. I've got my glasses at the ready.

Registered on April 24, 2006, 101 Posts, 837 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on August 4, 2011 at 7:24 PM

Great pose - looks as if she is challenging anyone to try to take the nut away!
Nice detail and BG too.
Have not seen the British red squirrl - are they really this almost-orange? or maybe a tad over-saturated?

Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Phillpotts on August 5, 2011 at 2:29 AM

Hi Sandy, they really are this colour. This one is actually a bit of a deeper orange/red in its summer coat but the strong light when taking the image has rendered it slightly more pale if anything. They are subject to lots of colour variations though including blonde tails in summer.

Simon

Registered on January 21, 2009, 16 Posts, 62 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Shaw on August 6, 2011 at 1:00 PM

This is cool. The only comment I have is that some of the log in front of the squirrel looks as if it is sharper than the walnut. I would prefer that the available depth of field was better distributed and that the walnut was sharper than the foreground bark flakes. I don't know whether you have made any microfocus adjustments or not, but you might want to check some of your other shots and think about it if other frames also show this tendancy.

Registered on July 25, 2005, 26 Posts, 110 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Phillpotts on August 6, 2011 at 5:06 PM

Well spotted Phil, it is front focusing slightly as I haven't yet done the micro-adjustment (too busy playing with the new toy rather than setting it up correctly first

) . I think I'll do it tomorrow if its still raining

Registered on January 21, 2009, 16 Posts, 62 Comments