The Squirrel

[fauxbird]

yes squirrels are one of those critters that are in constant motion,the red squirrel took hours and a few days to get a few decent shots of as they are nervous and really fast,plus a long lens but i found getting him used to hearing the camera noise helped a lot,if i can do that with a wild subject it helps my resident mocking bird is used to me and the camera i can get pretty close to him these days,the eastern grey squirrels are more bold though the black form is very common in most of ny these days wish i could have gotten a better picture of him but it was a tree area so i could not get any closer

[Dave Humphries]

Finally I have some reasonable squirrel pictures, red ones too, thanks to the British Wildlife Centre, Surrey.

This is a full sensor height, very close range shot, about 2 feet away, giving a narrow DoF even at f5.6. A bit of motion blur on fore paws and whisker ends, but the eyes are sharp. As soon as s/he determined we had no food, it was off.

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 105mm VR2 Macro: 1/180s f/5.6 at iso800

I wish I could have got a slightly clearer shot, but the wind was blowing the leaves around vigourously and it was pot luck getting a shot at all. It was fairly dim under the trees too, hence wide open.

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 105mm VR2 Macro: 1/90s f/3.0 at iso800

The first two are almost certainly the same squirrel, shot in a large 'walk-through' enclosure, unfortunately this one is a caged squirrel, shot through the wire, this was the only millisecond it paused in the whole time, talk about hyper-active

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 105mm VR2 Macro: 1/750s f/4 at iso800

Cheers,

[ScoutR]

the second one looks pretty good to me - very sharp! Thanks for bringing back the squirrel thread.

Wendy

[ScoutR]

ok im game red squirrel-montana trip,grey squirrel mill river park ny,wild black squirrel bronx zoo ny-

Nice shots. I especially like 1 & 2 can't decide on a winner, but I think I favour the grey.

Wendy

[ScoutR]

Wendy, Dave, all,
Let me assure you I have lots of images of squirrels which are frustringly unsharp. Think I agree with Dave that squirrels somehow generate blur!
I got lucky with the three shots posted took me about a dozen short sessions over a month to get these.

Shooting information as follows:-

Taken in my garden using a Canon EOS 550D with a Sigma 50-500mm, 1.4-6.3 APO DG HSM Telephoto

1st shot 125/s F6.3 ISO 400 Centre weighted Average Metering, distance 9.9m

2nd & 3rd shot 125/s F10 ISO 400 Centre weighted Average Metering, distance 6.1m

For what its worth, I've noticed that quite often when they become aware you are getting too close, they freeze, eyeball you, and dare you to make another move. That seems to be the moment.....

By the way they have certainly been stuffing themselves on Birdseed and Peanuts.

:-)

James

Sorry for the late reply James, I lost track of this thread. Thanks for posting the shooting info.

Wendy

[Ruiworld]

Hi,

Back to squirrel´s!

This is a Portuguese one taken in Lisbon (Monsanto Park).

[Letrow]

This one is from the Californian coast, somewhere along Highway 1

[Peter Ryan]

As Kit (New Zealand) showed we do not have squirrels downunder but here are a couple I got in Africa – just to represent the southern hemisphere.

Ground Squirrel - Namibia



Tree Squirrel - Botswana