Last few from 2015

I have spend the last afternoon of 2015 hiding in my local woods... (and testing my new Squirrel attractant recipe). Non cropped images

No crops? You have managed to get in really close. Well done.
David

Great job getting in close indeed! No1 is the best I feel ... if only you'd got a little wider and had its full foot it would be even better. There are lovely soft colours and great detail .... perhaps you could increase brightness just a little, 0.5 stop at most , at least on No1 & 2 .... ?

Thanks for the comments!

Fortunately Grey Squirrels are not too difficult to get close to compare to the native Reds, either a camouflage suit and mesh face veil or covering yourself in netting does the job to get you really close up (...and my irresistible homemade crunchy nut paste helps as well to urge them to pose just a bit longer).

These shots are taken with the K5IIs and the DA300 which are both quiet enough to keep firing as wildlife is approaching. The flip side is the lack of zoom when they are coming in closer than anticipated....
I used to take the K30 with Sigma 70-300 with me as back up to cover this problem but both are to noisy for close up wildlife shooting in my experience.

I already have increased the brightness as all images where quite underexposed, having shot at ISO 800 and f4. Just find it difficult to find the right balance with this in pp. Regarding NO 1&2, they where taken when the daylight was fading quickly and actually I like the fact there are no blown highlights in the whites so prefer to leave it like this. With sunlight I often struggle to get this right! (I will attach two images to show what I mean).

I can see the contrast challenges in those extra two there, yes, but on your first ones there seems to be plenty of good quality tonal information throughout the range, so I think a levels adjustment just on the midtones (middle slider) should work fine without bringing up the highlights .... there's a bit of leeway at the top anyway. As they stand the effect is a little dull, so they lose impact I feel.

Thanks for your feedback Nigel, Highly appreciated!

I will process the first two images again at the weekend and shall post the result.