Natural Parasol

[Morkel Erasmus]

A young Wire-tailed Ground Squirrel in the Kalahari desert uses its tail as a shade from the sun.
This photo was taken in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Mata-Mata rest camp in late morning light.
Fill flash was used and I was lying on my stomach.

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II
f8.0 @ 1/1600 SS @ ISO-400
EV +0.3


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[Rachel Hollander]

Very cute, Morkel. Looks like it's smiling for the camera. Nice low pov, excellent techs, bg and tones all combine for a simple but pleasing image. Of course some will say to get rid of the one blade of grass but I understand your feelings on cloning. A couple of spots on the leg look like they might be too hot but not a major distraction for me.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel,
high cuteness factor under the umbrella.
Nice composition , but think you can loose bit of FG and if you have give more on top.Low POV is working great.
Like the colors and the tones throughout the image.
I feel like that the flash is a bit too heavy , light is too even in the "shadow" areas for my taste.

TFS Andreas

[Andrew Merwin]

Morkel, I agree with Andreas re the foreground. I like the POV, but I think if you had been sitting up when you took the image the squirrel's right paw would be fully visible. It looks like it was a hot day. I like the techs & the story told by the parasol tail. TFS.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This has "cute" written all over it as mentioned by others. Lovely image.

[Marina Scarr]

Love that tail. The OOF at the bottom I find is quite overpowering and takes away from your subject.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, great title. :cheers:

I'm with Andreas on the FG, perhaps 1/3 - 1/2 the space, but add that to the top, needs to be played with? Perhaps moving slightly to the left may have give more to see of the body which I find a little odd looking as presented with that left rear leg splayed out. Obviously nothing you can do as they do hug the ground, but I feel it is exaggerated with the very sharp head and then straight to OOF. It might have also helped the stem in front of the front left paw which I do find annoying, so it could be toned down rather than pruned. :bg3: Also, not sure what the setting was on the flash, but I might have also knocked it down more, which in turn may have helped in the point Rachel made.

TFS
Steve

[Janet Heintz]

Morkel,
I like this image just the way it is. Very cute.
Like the color and pose.
Nice.
Janet

[Steve Canuel]

Interesting behavior and cool to see. Face and paws looks a touch over sharpened but with a name like wire-tailed, may be accurately portrayed (similar to your klipspringer's fur?) As for the FG, I think it just needs to be darkened/subdued a touch. The amount provides a nice balance to the image. Its the slightly brighter look that I notice.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thank you for your honest feedback, folks...
not sure what the flash setting was but for fill flash on wildlife I normally dial it down to betwen -1 and -2 flash-EV...
will revisit the crop when I have time...:S3: