Cape Ground Squirrel

[Glenn Pure]

I hope I have the ID correct on this little chap. I photographed him in the lodge/camp area at Okaukuejo in Etosha National Park Namibia. I gather they are quite common and maybe even a pest in some parts therefore probably ignored as photographic subject by many. I rather liked this one who was bold and not bothered by nearby campers - no doubt scavenging their scraps and dropped food items. This is cropped from a horizontal frame and this is probably only about a quarter of the original frame.

Thanks for looking and any comments you wish to provide.

Technical: Canon 80D with Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/2000, f7.1, ISO 500. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, Sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements. Some NR applied to background. Sharpened animal only (sharpness function: remove Gaussian blur, radius = 0.3 pixels, 50%) after final size reduction.

[greg cowle]

Glenn, I remember seeing these at a camp in Damaraland, although can't help/confirm ID. I did not get a close shot like this - I like the details - including the dirt on the chin.
Greg

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Glen, i would not have guessed this was a big crop, the IQ looks pretty good to me. Very clean and noise free, I haven't a clue what your sharpening regime is (I am guessing a function of Elements) but it is producing some good results.
There must be a good reason for not having an external ear, I initially guessed it was something to do with a partial life underground but other mammals living underground have ears.

[Steve Kaluski]

I like the portrait Glenn, but with some masks and layers I might of tried to add a bit more 'light & shade' on the subject. techs look good at at this size the very hefty crop looks OK, but a larger print might begin to show flaws. The coarseness of the fur is highlighted here and bolsters Gabriela's comment many moons ago when she posted a similar image. If possible, in an ideal world, slightly lower and shot portrait with the whole body in would have been nice.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Glenn you are right about ID ...
They are so cute characters and could be great fun to photograph in the camps ....Gabriela has created some stunning images in the past .
I do like the tight portrait and the detail in the eye is stunning ....overall i think a bit less on contrast would be better as the image appears quite coarse to me . BG does look really smooth ....maybe a tad too smooth for my liking , but your call on the NR .
Colors are looking about perfect to me .

Nice one ...TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Glenn - A pleasing portrait and you handled what looks like harsher light well I also feel this is a bit coarse and the coarse impression may be amplified by the smooth bg. Colors, tones and dof all look good to me.

TFS,
Rachel

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks for your comments Greg, Jon, Steve, Andreas and Rachel. The fur on these little ones is very coarse and also very 'salt and pepper' in appearance. So not much I can do about that except to deliberately soften the image! As I've said before, sometimes nature does look weird. As a few have noted, the smooth background emphasises this too but I've done nothing there to create this look - that's how it was. The noise was very low on this image as was exposed to the right and at ISO 500. Only reason for NR is to reduce the file size for post and thereby require less compression for this post which will improve the quality. I do have some more shots showing more of the animal Steve but it would no longer meet the 'Portrait/head shot' theme then!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Love this portrait, Glenn! And I adore those little squirrels, there are to be found just about everywhere in the Kalahari:)

Colours look good to me and fur is as coarse as is in real life. Nice HA and reflection in the eye. Great techs too, well exposed, sharp, comp works for me.

Yes they scavenge around camps and become rather overweight, but never lose the capability of finding food even when campers are gone-smart little critters!

Wonderful portrait, you should be pleased with this. I would love to see some more please. Will try post some especially for you, as soon as I get a chance. Internet very slow on my side and it took me over an hour to download this, so please forgive me for being so late with my comments.
Hope you have a wonderful week ahead, thank you so much for sharing

Kind regards,