Eurasian red squirrel Scirius vulgaris

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 1DX Canon 100-400 L IS II Auto ISO 3200 1/800 sec f7.3
Another shot from Finland, her grey coloured coat is being shed and replaced by the red.

[keith mitchell]

This is nice Jon with this Squirrel caught in it's molt,from winter to spring I guess ,ear tufts look splendid even showing the banding ,are they close colour wise to our's?as this one looks more yellow to me,smashing alert capture.

Keith.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Jonathan -- Such a lovely specimen, loved those raised tuft's ! I liked the tones with slight scope of opening the midtones, appears a bit dark to me. But have that gloomy feel in the image , might be cloudy out there ? Nicely perched with some nice details coming through. Slightly tight at foot especially where its tail is ending , but over all it is working for me as presented . This is very nicely done , one of the loveliest squirrel image i have ever seen .

TFS !

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Keith Haseeb glad you liked it. The lighting was on the whole rather dull and then when we left beautiful clear blue skies with a few wispy white clouds! I think the colours are pretty close though I am expecting a couple of people to tell me the log has a strange colour cast, if so I agree but I can't decide what it is!! I have tried magenta and blue - hey maybe it's purple??

[haseeb badar]

might be slightest of magenta creeping in the log , but looks good to me .

[John Mack]

Neat looking squirrel really like the ears, good background.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Jon,

Lovely capture, very sweet pose from the subject and composition is great. Those tufts are so cute!

BG is great, I won't dare comment on colours as I am not familiar with the species or its environment. The log looks good to me as is, but if you feel it is competing with the subject you could try reduce the saturation on reds, just a suggestion? And maybe a small curve adjustment on the squirrel itself to bring it out a little more ( I tried a quick RP on my laptop, see if it works for you).

Overall a super cool shot my friend, I am loving it, thank you so much for sharing:w3

Warmest regards,

[Mike Poole]

I find the colours really interesting on this one Jon, I like it. Nice alert pose and those are some impressive ear tufts!

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, nice to see a different squirrel.

Any more below, I just find it a tad tight. Hard to tell on the MB pro, but I wonder if there is a slight colour shift??? Good detail although I think going to the full extension of the zoom is always better. Nice alert pose and I like the front paw placement and the slight bend of the tail. Some minor clipping in the blacks and I think you meant f/7.1. The set-up being on a slant adds to the strong comp.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for he feedback everyone, the 1.4TC was used so I had the flexibility to photograph the squirrel in differing locations and also to photograph birds. I did initially have the 500mm on but it became unwieldy.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Amazing detail and sharpness. The pose and BG are perfect.

I would just try a CCW rotation, that is what my mind is telling me when I look at the image. I am not saying its scew I just feel the rotation might give the image more balance.

Very nice image....:cheers:

[Stuart Philpott]

These molting animals are strange to look at Jon it reminds me so much of the roe I posted,the old fur plays with one,I'm utterly sure that it's a wonderful capture though and just how they are at the time one catches them. I find no conflict here betwixt log and beastie jon,I would like a touch more at the base. I find the colours work for me,although I am utterly unaware of what a Finish red should look like. Maybe being super picky I'd clone out that front blade/stem below and slightly left of front paws,beyond that a corker !!

stu

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon cool looking squirrel from the color variation POV ..very different to the usual posted ones .
I like the pose and then surroundings , well captured . Lovely detail and sharpness looks spot on as posted .
I personally think the blacks are a bit on the heavy side ....look at the histogram :w3.
I am with Steve regarding the overall color, somethings does look not " correct " . Having the expected boreal forest in mind ....i might go overall cooler by changing the WB and drop the magenta in color balance for example .

Just my thoughts .....TFS Andreas