Paws for Thought - Red Squirrels

Went to Brownsea Island back in April for the 2nd time to shoot the Red Squirrels, it is becoming such an addiction that we have booked a weeks holiday on the island itself for next year!

One of the main attractions for me is that they are such little characters and great fun to be around, so I spent some time getting some close ups to show a part of their character, wanting to get one with a clean background which would be turned into a print to sell in the gallery.

As there were so many of these shots I thought I would do something a little different, so I've also including a shot of the finished frame as well!

















Let me know what you think!

Cracking set No.2 is my fave

Lovely shots!

A really very nice set Danny. Love red squiggles.

These are great... As you say, real little characters...

Best

Excellent! Got them at the Isle of Wight. Am down Bournemouth way next week - do they show well in July there do you know?
Dave

These are really lovely, there seems to be only grey ones in my village and are completely wild, can't really get near them. Lovely set
#2 for me.
Derek

Just gorgeous , great detail and the lighting is spot on.

Thanks for the positive comments, glad you like them!

Don't have a clue, only been in October and April and they are quite used to people being around. They can get quite close, too close sometimes, had to switch to my phone to get this!




There is a small area behind the church with a couple of tree stumps, seems to be a good area, take some hazelnuts, put some in a stump and sit back and wait!

Sublime shots Danny, I love the natural colours and the lovely clean, diffused backgrounds. I have a pet hate for busy backgrounds on wildlife shots, these are right up my street. Regarding framing, I think these deserve a single image on their own rather than multiples, but this is just a personal opinion.

What camera / lens combination?

Regards
David

Beautiful shots, a great job, and I echo David's praise of the colours and backgrounds .... they are all 'sharp but soft' .... (if that makes any sense!)

These are beautiful, although I too don't like the multiple pictures in one frame - or is it just the mixed sizes?

Thanks David, I'm a fan of the clean diffused backgrounds too, definately helps the subject stand out, especially on close ups.

Taken with K-3 and F*250-600mm at less than 20ft away, too close to get a full body shot at 600mm! 1st was shot at 600mm, the rest are around 410mm - 460mm.

The framing was very much a case of trying something different as the gallery is full of 'normally' framed pics and not all images get printed due to limited space, this was a way of getting more images up without taken up that much more space. Finished mount is 28" square approx. Today is it's debut, so I'll ask the customers what they think too as I'm thinking of doing a series. Waxwings, Red Kites, Red Deer etc are on the list of ideas!

What they all said. The framed set reminds me of school photo proofs. The title is a bit marmite?

Thanks Nigel! Knowing how much you like the area, surprised not to see you have a shot at the squirrels too!

You might be right about the different sizes but I thought it was definately worth a try! The large one is printed on 24" x 18" (image approx 21"x14") and the smaller ones are 6"x4" so it's large enough to stand out.

As an example, here are 2 others framed normally, the portrait one is on 36" x 24", the landscape 24"x18"