Red on White

[Black Pearl]

After a hideously early start, wrapping up in everything down filled I own and settling down under the cover of some trees to shelter I managed a few shots of red squirrels dashing about in the snow and pinching the nuts we had left for them. Such a pretty little creature and an amazing experience being out in the wilds to see and photograph them in their natural environment.

I'm not a wildlife shooter and as such my lenses top out at 200mm but I still managed a few shots I'm rather chuffed with...







An idea of the conditions...

[John 2]

I'm impressed and the shots are pretty good as well. 55-200mm presumably? What are you using for RAW conversion. The fur detail is excellent.

[rpcrowe]

Really nice shots... The hooded down jackets and chairs would break up your outline and allow the little creatures a measure of security

BTW: This is the chair I use for a blind ("hide" in UK English). I clip some shade cloth onto the canopy with a slit in the front for the camera. The shade cloth is a dark green on which I have sprayed some spots of brown, black and lighter green as camouflage.



Basically, the canopy is for sun in my area but, I would imagine that it would also protect a photographer from snow. The next time I am out shooting with it, I will shoot an image and post it.

[Urbanflyer]

wonderful detail!

[Black Pearl]

Thanks for the info Richard - I did consider taking one of the huge umbrellas I've been given by various photo brands over the years but tucked myself tight against a tree instead. These two got caught off guard when the first heavy (for us) snow started and so moved shortly after this shot. I might still look into one of those canopies though as it would work well for our more typical rain.

[chauncey]

They are nice shots, but...I do question your sanity in the lengths you go for the images.

[Black Pearl]

They are nice shots, but...I do question your sanity in the lengths you go for the images.

You wouldn't be the first mate

[madcrow]

Congratulations on your images and perseverance to get than. The sharpness, colours and detail to die got. You did extremely with that lens. A very big well done.

[Shadowman]

Really nice shots... The hooded down jackets and chairs would break up your outline and allow the little creatures a measure of security

BTW: This is the chair I use for a blind ("hide" in UK English). I clip some shade cloth onto the canopy with a slit in the front for the camera. The shade cloth is a dark green on which I have sprayed some spots of brown, black and lighter green as camouflage.



Basically, the canopy is for sun in my area but, I would imagine that it would also protect a photographer from snow. The next time I am out shooting with it, I will shoot an image and post it.

I wonder if they have the front shields similar to what you see on snow blowers? Oh wait now we're close to describing a tent.

[Shadowman]

Nice squirrel shots, I purchased one of those rain covers and hope it works in weather such as you have in these images.

[Black Pearl]

I'm impressed and the shots are pretty good as well. 55-200mm presumably? What are you using for RAW conversion. The fur detail is excellent.

Thanks John.

The squirrel shots are with the 55-200mm shot around f5.6. I know its not really a 'kit' lens but its not a fixed aperture pro lens either but is stall capable of remarkably good quality.

I use Lightroom CC for the raw conversion. I do know its not the best at pulling very fine detail from a RAF file and I have tried others but it is 'good enough' and as I downsample just about everything to web sizes I haven't found it an issue. For these I gave Lightroom's noise reduction slider a nudge to smooth them out a little then they were output sharpened in Photoshop using Smart Sharpen. They are cropped from the full 16mp file but not severely as the squirrels were coming fairly close.

[Stagecoach]

Beautiful set Robin.

[John 2]

Thanks Robin. There's a lot talked about different RAW converters for RAF files being better than Adobe RAW but I'm with you, the sort of quality you have achieved here suggests that if there is a difference (and I guess there is), it's too small to justify the £80 -£100 plus investment for the few occasions it might matter. BTW, I wouldn't class the 55-200mm as a kit lens. It's an excellent medium zoom. The 18-55mm is the so called kit lens and its performance isn't so far behind. I have one and for WEB work, frankly having come after the 23mm and 35 mm primes, it's made them redundant. They are better of course but the convenience of not having to change lenses usually means they stay in the bag.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice images, Robin. The first one has a better BG but the content in the second is awesome. You took good advantage of the snow.

[Black Pearl]

Nice images, Robin. The first one has a better BG but the content in the second is awesome. You took good advantage of the snow.

Thanks Dan. The squirrel was much closer in the first shot so I got good separation between it and the background even with a moderate aperture zoom but the second it was a fair way away and this image is a very heavy crop. I'd love a Fuji XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R which would have opened up endless possibilities yesterday but I honestly can't justify the cost for the limited use it would get.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice images

[vaez]

all lmage very nice