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Hi,

came across this little curious baby squirrel on a walk today. I sat down and had a little chat with him and he agreed to let me take a few shots as he was posing on a tree, bragging about being Spiderman.

Turns out he's a Canon man himself, so he wasn't particularly impressed with the Nikon D40 and my 55-200mmVR that I took these with.

He left when I started talking about my SB-400 flash, muttering something about being cheap...





ISO400, F5.6, 200mm
Expose 1/320sec & 1/400sec respectively.

OH my gosh....lol...Lah that is the best...he is posing, and pretty cute, love the way you captured the light play on the bark of that tree, and still got the fuzzy ears, and fluffed out tail...way to go, Lah..another good set.



patti

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Great story Lah, gotta love those lill before hand stories!

Thats a qute litte fella, i think i have a squirle that lives around my house because i see him serveral times during the day jumping the on the back wall! But you got somre really good shots, i have learnt something when it comes to animals and if you want them to pose...


what you do is that you make a little noise in the direction you are and they will look , at least most of them, cats do

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Great shots, i like these. What aperture did you use/shutter speed/iso/focal length if you dont mind sharing?

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Great shots! I love the expression on the first one!

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Nice shots! Looks like the kind you find on children's books!

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Mucho sharpening, eh? (looking at the hairs)
Or is this all natural??

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[quote="Thomas"]Mucho sharpening, eh? /quote]

the hair on these littbe fellas is really like that if you ask me, donest look oversharpend to me

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Thank you for the kind words - that little fella sure is a charmer..lol!

Gregory, I updated the post with the info, which should have been there to begin with. Thanks for reminding me.

Thomas, I absolutely post process my photos - often in several different ways. A certain part of the joy I have with photography comes from seeing what I can - and cannot - do with the images. Unfortunately I'm somewhat impulsive and explorative in my approach to this, so I don't keep notes on what I've done. Sharpening was certainly part of it - as I recall some high pass sharpening in there for sure.

I'm not terribly conscious about the distinction between what the camera does and what I do on the computer - to me it's not even post-processing. There are no pictures I've ever taken that I felt were complete until I have processed them with the tools I had - the darkroom in the old days and now the computer.

However, I am very interested in and appreciative of feed back and suggestions. If you feel that there's too much, too little or something else that could have made the images better, I'm keen to hear it as I respect your learned opinion in these and many other matters

Cheers!

Since you asked... I'd like to put down a little point of debate here I use a lot of contrast and saturation myself, but I'm never quite sure when enough's enough. In your 1st picture for instance, check out the tail of the squirrel. It's very very sharp but is that really what you'd want in a photo like this? It might be better to leave the contrast or even lower it to create that soft fluffy effect that I think represents a squirrel best, sharper is not always better...

I hope this makes sense...

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Hey Paukl,

I can see your point there. The hairs on his tail is pale and at the same time, the tail is sticking out into the light, against an otherwise dark background, which has created some extra emphasis on the tail. His chest is very brightly lit as well and there is a shine to his coat too.

With the light and colors already conspiring to emphasize the individual hairs on his tail, judicious use of sharpening is warranted if you want to bring out a more "bushy" feel.

In the second one the light is a tad dimmer and the position of the tail is withdrawn into the shadows, making the tail seem less "spikey".

Interesting point there Paukl and good eyes too Thanks for the consideration. Now I just have to wonder how much you can trust a guy who makes self-portraits using reflections in garbage cans??!!

lol..just kidding..that was an interesting shot and idea

Cheers!

Yeah, I think Paukl has nailed it (for me): The tail looks a little too much "spikey" as opposed to "soft" and "fluffy"...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
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