Red squirrel

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon7D Canon 500mm f4 l IS tripod, ISO 800 1/400sec f5.6

Last one of the squirrels. Here you can see he is undergoing moult and there are just the first signs of his ear tufts beginning to appear.
All comments welcome.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jonathan, I think this is the best of the bunch, nice in frame, with a classic pose to boot. A little unfortunate about the light stone next to the head, but that's wildlife. Without knowing where the focus point is, I almost get the feeling the lens is back focusing, as the tail looks sharper and more natural where the eye & body looks 'crunchy' and I wonder if the ISO is perhaps clashing with the sharpening and therefore, easing off on the sharpening may help? For me, the FP needs to be bang on that eye, everything else will then fall into place.

Lets hope we get some snow, these guys look really cute in that environment and certainly 'pop'! :bg3:

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

I agree with Steve that this is the best of the 3. I like the pose with the raised foot and the curled tail. Comp is good too with enough space below.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

The best of the lot in my books, Jonathan. Very nice, love the pose!
I see Steve's point, perhaps just lessen the sharpening on the back?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for your comments everyone as always much appreciated. The image is particularly crisp - I think because this was with the 500mm, the others were with my 100-400, and I agree the ISO is 800, this too makes it a tad on the crunchy side. The other consideration is that the fur is damp and the squirrel is undergoing moult - it is most evident on the front right shoulder so the fur will appear slightly coarse and therefore crunchy. I suspect the focal point was not on the eye, the little critter was constantly moving and really the 500mm was too long, it was extremely difficult to get the focus point on the eye. I have used rear focusing, I tried for some time and got used to it but I guess horses for courses, I prefer to use the shutter to fire the shutter and focus as one action. To stop focus I use the "AF on" button, this seems more intuitive to me.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jonathan,
the best one of this series.
I do not agree on sharpening, like it as is.
I would give it a bit more pop in the mid tones.
Colors are quite nice and the raised foot is a nice bonus .

TFS Andreas

[Steve Canuel]

Like the pose and surroundings. Especially like the texture of the curled tail. Sharpening looks ok to me.