Mr Squirrel

[Kaelastreet]

This is one of those shots I feel good about. I scattered wildlife seed outside my window in the wet grass this morning. I ran off a whole load of images, but after sorting through, and becoming hyper critical, I settled on this one shot.
I know with film, I was prepared to suggest 1 good shot per roll equals success. But now, I wonder if I fire away letting the odds fall to one good shot per Gigabyte?

Does that make me better, or just adaptive at grasping a situation that gives nearly unlimited opportunities at no extra cost... Ethics never was my best point.

Mr Squirrel here is a PNG (8), Incase you cannot see it, I have the same image in JPG located Here on my personal web site, feel free to browse.

Kizz

[SmartWombat]

I still count a percent success rate or 1 in 3 or 1 in 5 whatever.
All that shooting Film would do is cost me more
Digital has been great to help me learn at lower cost.

[jfelbab]

Nice shot, Kizz.

I arrived home after a three month hiatus expecting the local freeloaders to have moved on but these furry guys just never take the hint. Guess I should have been a little more careful when filling my bird feeders.

[Kaelastreet]

Theyare such adorable creatures and obviously made to be photographed.

I gave up trying to stop them takling food, I just buy plenty of food nowadays and they seem happy.

A couple have made it 'their place' and we no longer get them by the ruck.

From your pictures, our are different in more than one way. Ours have the tufts on the ears that seem to be absent from your squirrels...
Strange...

Kizz

[cyberlord]

A couple of shots of the same squirrel. There were 2 running around the yard. This is what Grey Squirrels look like in NW Florida in the spring.

Shot them with my *ist DL and Tamron 75-300LD.

[SmartWombat]

My turn - since you exported the Grey squirrel to us ... this one's moved in at the end of our road by the offices.

[cyberlord]

Aren't they such little posers?

[paulnj]

Kaela, I browsed you site and came to this....

You own a D70 and have a feeder outside your window which gets squirrels, robins and I do believe blue ****. If you want tighter images, try moving the feeder closer to your window or even sitting quietly out near the feeder.

This image you posted was not as good as the running one and has a odd color cast to it.

[Kaelastreet]

Hi Paul

This image you posted was not as good as the running one and has a odd color cast to it.

Can you copy a slice of the image you saw, or tell me what the page reference was.

Some of my images are a 'funny colour'. partly to do with my monitor set-up and partly to do with my age, he he. Most things these days seem to suffer 'senior moments'.

But, thnak you for the observation, it gives me a chance to 'right a wrong'.

Kizz

[Kaelastreet]

Hi PAul

Like your squirrels too, they look smarter, and more, well, buisnesslike than those in the cheshire plains where I am.

Ours seem to have more 'red' in them and from what I have seen here so far, mine are the only ones with the red squirrel winter ear tufts.

Oh boy, I need another hobby, its 06:30 and I am supposed to be getting ready for work and I am sitting here talking about ear tufts.


Kizz

[drg]

This post is getting real squirrelly ! Some fun shots included here.

I don't know that a successful failure ratio is necessary to compute other than to learn from the photographs that don't come out as you had anticipated. Digital,as Paul noted, can be a great help in improving anyone's photography. Not only are the film and processing costs eliminated, there is also the instant feedback of being able to evaluate the image.

[Kaelastreet]

Quite true DRG.
I hesitate to 'save' shots as I never know what will happen if I don't take the shot. If I run out of batteries, it is a reminder I need more spares. If I run out of megabytes, it is a reminder I need to get some more. Live for the moment, Shoot now, and shoot freely. And anyway, who's counting???

Kizz

[paulnj]

this image is a great try at panning and I find it much more pleasing to the eyes.

http://www.kizzie.co.uk/public/Squirrel-on-the-run.jpg

[Kaelastreet]

tahis image is a great try at panning and I find it much more pleasing to the eyes.

http://www.kizzie.co.uk/public/Squirrel-on-the-run.jpg

Ah, yes, again, taken through the double glazed window with not-the-best-light outside.

I revisited the shot tonight, and re-cropped so that I could better present it here.

and then, I came across this one whilst looking through loads of stuff I was deleting.

Its easy to see the squirrel on the feeder roof, but through the feeder, sitting on the hedge at the edge of the garden, is a small bird, pretty well camouflaged too.

Thank you everyone for showing so much interest in this thread, it all kinda helps us beginners keep going when you all show such warm interest in our work.

Kizz

[SmartWombat]

If I run out of megabytes, it is a reminder I need to get some more

ALDI, LIDL (yes, supermarkets!) and Maplin seem in a price war on external USB disk drives.
250GB from Maplin £89, from ALDI £99, 300GB from LIDL £109
They're probably all so cheap because "new and improved" models are coming.
At that price, I bought two old and inferior drives for making backups

[paulnj]

That bird is a CHAFFINCH I do believe ;)

Does that window open?

[Kaelastreet]

One window does open, and sometimes I can shoot through it, but patience and bitter cold or draughts are the trade off.

Here is another Squirrelly shot.

[paulnj]

Not bad at all. Are these heavy crops by any chance?

[Kaelastreet]

Yes, cropped a bit. Shall I post the original for comparison?
Kizz

[paulnj]

Sure, lets see the whole frame.

[Kaelastreet]

Here we go, the original shot 'shrunk' to 640...





Its Easter Sunday today, and the darn squirrel stole the grease ball before we could get the cameras out.. Cannot get another till tomorrow. sigh....

Will have to learn how to make them myself...
Kizz

[paulnj]

Not too shabby! You need to work on not centering your subject(as do I), because you chopped of the tip of the tail ;) You can lock the focus and recompose.

[Kaelastreet]

I guess I focused on his eyes, having been watching the food-ball as it is the bait for the **** that visit our garden.
Kizz