Posts in Category: squirrel
New Mexico! Looking at me
Rock Squirrel: Randall Davey Audubon Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. July 2024 — Clearly a nursing mother Rock Squirrel out for a snack and a break from nursing. She was very aware of me but not all that concerned. She evidently has dealt with photographers before. Sony a6700 with Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird and wildlife modifications. Animal subject recognition. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Red in the morning
Red Squirrel: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2024 — This is the Red Squirrel that occasionally visits our back deck feeding station, looking for whatever it can find. It does not come often enough to have figured out the squirrel proof feeders…which is a good thing…as, in my experience, feeders that are Grey Squirrel proof are not proof against Red Squirrels. He is actually welcome to any and all spilled seed, but there he has to compete with the chipmunks and his larger grey cousins. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko ED 100-400IS zoom at 488mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Nothing like being close: squirrelly edition
Grey Squirrel: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2024 — Another visitor to the deck while I was waiting on the hummingbirds. Between squirrel proof feeders and some training, the squirrels are mostly happy with spilled seed these days, and they are quite fearless. They are up on the deck when I am right there in my chair, pretty much daring me to do anything about it. 🙂 I am happy to let them have the spilled seed. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Tell me it isn’t Monday already!
Monday monday. Just for humor’s sake. But Red Squirrels are always super expressive, and an easy canvas to project almost any emotion. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 300mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator and TouchRetouch (to remove a feeder pole across the tail).
Maine! Red again
Red Squirrel: Back deck, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, May 2024 — we had a rainy day visit from the neighborhood Red-Squirrel yesterday. Sometime it runs off as soon as I open the back deck door to take its photo, but sometimes it is bold as brass and just dares me to do something about it. It spent a good hour, coming and going on the deck, and I got the door open far enough for photos a couple of times. Once I had to shoo it off when it was in danger of coming inside. 🙂 OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 246mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications (no need to switch to animal for a squirrel :). Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Close encounter of the Red Squirrel kind
Red Squirrel: Back deck, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, April 2024 — As I have mentioned before, this Red Squirrel does not live in our yard. I suspect it actually lives in the forest along the railroad tracks several suburban lots away, but it comes to visit occasionally, to see what it can find on our back deck under the bird feeders. It is particularly fond of whatever mealworm fragments the birds have left behind. It has been, in past, quite shy, but this week it appeared quickly and then disappeared over the edge of the deck while I was watching, so I went to get my camera and went out to see if it was still in the yard. As I stood on the deck I saw it creep back up under the railings at one corner, not 3 feet from where I was standing. But instead of running off, it came up on the deck, then onto the rail to challenge me. I was clearly in the way of what it wanted to do, and it was having none of that. It was certainly not intimidated by me and my camera at all. I had to step back and zoom out to get it in frame. Lots of tail whipping and feet stamping going on, and if looks could kill. I took a lot of photos. It eventually came even closer, almost between my feet, too close for the zoom even at the widest end, and I slipped back inside so it could have the run of the deck and find its mealworm bits. Close encounters of the Red Squirrel kind. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 200-400mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications (no need to switch to animal mode for squirrels). Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Squirrel Rodeo
Eastern Grey Squirrel: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, March 2024 — The other day I got out for a walk around the neighborhood with my camera, and found quite a few of the local squirrels having a rodeo in a large open lot up the street. There were at least a dozen of them, chasing each other across the yard in close pursuit, round and round the big pines, and high into the branches, juggling buried acorns from last year. It looked like fun, and was certainly fun to watch. OM System OM-1Mkii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications (works for small mammals just as well). Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Don’t get your tail in a twist
Eastern Grey Squirrel, Mousam River Reserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, March 2024 — The squirrels were very active on one of the first moderately warm days of spring, everywhere I went yesterday. And feisty…even for feisty squirrels. This one was doing the whole “You shall not pass!” thing from the Lord of the Rings…his tail whipping around behind him like Gandalf’s cloak. I took a burst of shots hoping to catch the tail in an interesting position. 🙂 OM System OM-1Mkii with 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Grey Squirrel (I see you!)
Grey Squirrel: Kennebunk Maine, USA, May 2023 — When you live in Maine you practice Animal Auto Focus on any wildlife available…mostly squirrels. 🙂 This squirrel did its “laying out flat on a branch” thing for me, and watched me inside my hide. He very definitely knew exactly where I was and was keeping track of what I was doing. We have two different framings here: 800mm equivalent and, using the digital tele-converter in the OM-1, 1600mm equivalent. In both cases the camera automatically kept focus on the eye. Program mode with my evolving wildlife modifications. (That is what the practice is all about.) Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 800 @ f6.3 @ 1/500th. Minus .7EV.
Cheating on Red
Red-Squirrel, Alwive Pond Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — So this is totally cheating. This is the same Red Squirrel I posted twice already (different pose in a different section of the tree, but still from the same encounter). The problem was that the background was totally washed out…I mean so white that I could not recover any detail in it. Still, I like the pose so I thought, lets have a little fun with it. I took it into Pixomatic for some MagicCut work, refined the results, and pasted in another forest photo, taken with the iPhone at Laudholm Farms. Adjusted the brightness and contrast to make it fit better. Took the result back into Polarr and worked on it some more. Finished it off in Apple Photos. It is not perfect, but I put as much time into it as I was willing to give this morning, and it makes for an interesting image (and an interesting exercise). I think 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed as above. Just for fun.