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Thread: Red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris UK (baited)

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    Icon1 Red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris UK (baited)

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    Back in the 18oo's rich folks brought the grey squirrel from America to the UK. Gradually the grey had out competed our native red to now in the Southern part of my homeland reds are completely gone. It's all so so sad. Residual populations inhabit various islands that surround the UK mainland they seem to be doing ok .But mainland south UK has been all but stripped of this species completely.

    So we went on our first big trip in the campervan to see if we could find them. We did and i'll bang a big thanks up to the good folks we met along the way whom allowed both myself and my lady a chance to see our first ever British reds.

    The shoot was a bit strange for me,two little chairs and wait under a couple of feeders tended by a lovely guy called Paul,a little table cups of tea on tap ( well I am English). We both beamed like silly children as slowly but surely reds started to appear . That complete feeling of joy utterly tempered by what had been taken from us. We have 109 years combined on this island ( I'm 55 Shaz 54) spend hours in our home southern woodlands and no red ever sighted simply because they are gone,because of man. What a catastrophe.

    With a completely new species to me I was cautious about my effect on them so probably didn't make the best of the light or photo ops. I shot and evening and early morn then had to come home, a bit more time would have been fantastic as our observations made me more and more confident as to the squiggles being little bothered by our prescence.

    Here is a female possibly nursing or just finished. If my asumptions are correct we caught her weaning a bigger kidlet from the last litter and she is heavily pregnant with another brood


    The image is not cropped it is as framed

    Canon 1dxii 1.4 ext iii 400DO IS ii 1/500 f 5.6 iso 12800 colour WB gentle nr, cloned dust bunnies in canons DPP selective NR and sharps PSCC I know my SS is too low for fast twitchy subjects just tried to make the best of what light we had. As time wore on I was able to drop the EXT and get closer, I just needed time to get my head around my subjects before closing in .

    Thanks for all the thoughts on my previous images. It's sort of lovely to post my first ever sighting ,and one from those images here, of a red squirrel. It's also very hard that we had to travel so far due to them being wiped out by the American grey introduced here by man. These little red guys should be in every woodland here but they simply can't compete,throw in a couple of diseases the greys carry and we have lost something very very special, very special indeed!!

    take care

    stu

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Hello Stu,

    I really enjoyed the story behind the image and very glad you had an opportunity to see and photograph this species. Love the fact that you are so respectful and thoughtful when you encounter wildlife

    In terms of techs I think you've done your best Stu, under the circumstances. Pleasantly surprised to see the high ISO did not affect the image too much, perhaps you could do a little NR on the BG if you like.

    Regarding composition, my suggestion is that you take some off the top so the squirrel is not quite in the centre of the image. This would also help remove the little patch in the ULC ( could be leaves or a branch).

    Frame is well exposed and I guess the colours are pretty much "as they were". No colour casts present. A slight curve adjustment would add more "oomph" to the subject, selectively applied of course. I would lift the shadows ever so slightly on the right side of the squirrel.

    Incredible how she holds onto the tree with those tiny nailsYou've done so well to capture this cute expression from the subject and pose is delightful - very well done!

    Thank you so much for sharing,

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Did not know that about the grey squirrels. Very interesting. Glad you had the oppurtunity on these reds. Like the pose on the squirrel and that way it is hanging on the side of the tree. The background is nice. The image quality looks pretty good for that high ISO.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Stu, glad you got the encounters you wanted and this is looking good for the ISO. I also like the jaunty angle of the tree.

    Overall I do find the image a little flat, albeit the tree is I think, very reflective, but could go a tad darker. The image needs cropping as Gabriela pointed out and some Curves adjustments, however I love the inquisitive pose/look and you have the sharpness where it matters. If you had a tripod this would have helped, you can plan things and almost set the scene up with these guys. By doing so, a slight drop in SS with a steadier platform would have dropped the ISO, likewise you could have afforded to maybe drop the exposure by a third with the MK2 gaining a bit more to play with and the dynamic range is a tad better too. In doing so you could have 'lift' the image in PP if required but... you just need to think and the also the PP side. If I can now shoot at ISO320 rather than 6400 with a slight tweak and do some nifty footwork in PP then it's an option I will think about.

    Look forward to more.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gabriela Plesea View Post
    Hello Stu,

    I really enjoyed the story behind the image and very glad you had an opportunity to see and photograph this species. Love the fact that you are so respectful and thoughtful when you encounter wildlife

    In terms of techs I think you've done your best Stu, under the circumstances. Pleasantly surprised to see the high ISO did not affect the image too much, perhaps you could do a little NR on the BG if you like.

    Regarding composition, my suggestion is that you take some off the top so the squirrel is not quite in the centre of the image. This would also help remove the little patch in the ULC ( could be leaves or a branch).

    Frame is well exposed and I guess the colours are pretty much "as they were". No colour casts present. A slight curve adjustment would add more "oomph" to the subject, selectively applied of course. I would lift the shadows ever so slightly on the right side of the squirrel.

    Incredible how she holds onto the tree with those tiny nailsYou've done so well to capture this cute expression from the subject and pose is delightful - very well done!

    Thank you so much for sharing,

    Kind regards,
    Hey Gabriela, hope you are in the midst of a wonderful weekend.Ha ha it's a bad day for me and letters I can't even write Hey, let alone spell your name ( think it's right now 4th attempt lol) One has to smile sometimes it is what it is......... anyway...................... We mused the crop,it is a bit of sky TULC ,that init's self part of the reason and also mused the shadows,under her. So i'm chuffed we were sort of on the right track even though I was unsure about implimentation.

    colours wise I took a WB reading off tummy but them went to colour temp as my base eye dropper looked too cold. I did hit the bkg noise fairly hard in PS maybe not quite enough

    The scots pine is native it is actually our only native pine. So there is a big tie in with this tree and red squirrels as the two evolved here together . Gabriela the scots pine bark sort of sits up ,flakes,off the tree,so with ref to how they move and those nails,it is bewildering to watch. What really amazed us, even moreso because it was not windy,was how we could hear the reds coming................. moving through the treetops. Their nails were incredibly loud I feel accentuated by the "sort of hollow flakes of bark.of the pines. The bark also eventually gave me a means to slow them slightly as I realised I could hide spit peanuts behind the flakes. It took me a while to be happy though about doing this. I think it's good to be a bit cautious maybe I'm too much so,but I've always felt knowing a bit about one's subject helps with the image making process. I actually started hiding nuts after watching a squirrel searching the crevices off bark high in a tree. So I thought I might be able to replicate a natural behaviour,as well as slow them a touch.

    Thanks so much for the reply beautiful aren't they !!

    stu

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    Quote Originally Posted by John Mack View Post
    Did not know that about the grey squirrels. Very interesting. Glad you had the oppurtunity on these reds. Like the pose on the squirrel and that way it is hanging on the side of the tree. The background is nice. The image quality looks pretty good for that high ISO.
    Sad but true John,the grey from America does very well here. Our number one abouricultural pest beyond the loss of the reds they cost the forestry industry huge sums. So much here is tampered with by man John, we also have terrific problems with your american mink,released here by folks anti to the trade in animal fur with more tragic consequences to species such as our water vole.............. signal cray fish another decimating our native white claw. Much wrong here John as elsewhere and most of it our doing!!


    many thanks

    stu

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    [QUOTE=Steve Kaluski;1217291]Hi Stu, glad you got the encounters you wanted and this is looking good for the ISO. I also like the jaunty angle of the tree.

    Overall I do find the image a little flat, albeit the tree is I think, very reflective, but could go a tad darker. The image needs cropping as Gabriela pointed out and some Curves adjustments, however I love the inquisitive pose/look and you have the sharpness where it matters. If you had a tripod this would have helped, you can plan things and almost set the scene up with these guys. By doing so, a slight drop in SS with a steadier platform would have dropped the ISO, likewise you could have afforded to maybe drop the exposure by a third with the MK2 gaining a bit more to play with and the dynamic range is a tad better too. In doing so you could have 'lift' the image in PP if required but... you just need to think and the also the PP side. If I can now shoot at ISO320 rather than 6400 with a slight tweak and do some nifty footwork in PP then it's an option I will think about.

    It was wonderful Steve cheers for the tips before we went ,haha I never got to grabbing the Hazel nuts but they would have been tricky to utilize anyway . Although I may well harvest some cobs from home on the twig as it were for next time. I think my levels were out re tree angle but it sort of works for me as is hence not correcting it,but yes my bad!!

    Agreed on tripod it would have been an asset for me on this shoot leastways most of the time. I simply don't have your expertise with the camera and post buddy you are so seemless with your skills. i'm so far away with my feeble skillset we are winning Steve all your work isn't being wasted... it's getting better but yeah I can see where you are guiding me with this post . I just tried to ETTR up to avoid noise and shot at moments when the subject was relatively still and really focus on me being still at shutterpress aswell .

    Great points well made Steve. I mage a huge gaff with a leveret recently severely underexposing by maybe 2 to 3 stops. My iso was the lowest it had been for ages as I was shooting in bright sun until the leveret was at my feet in deep deep shade. Although they will never be the best images what I was able to get back from the RAW 1DXii files even with my limited skills simply blew me away,so I have a base understanding of what you are saying. I probably don't quite have the skills yet, the finnesse, but maybe one day

    cheers
    stu

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Stu, it's like ridding a bke or learning to driving a manual car, it all seems too hard and nothing goes the way it should and we blame everything bar, the ourselves. However, it won't be long before the last few events fall into place and then you are 'cooking'.
    You are having fun whilst learning Stu and that is what it's all about.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Thank you kindly for reply, Stu. Winter here in SA... after a week of 32"C almost every day today it is suddenly cold and windy, about 17"C. So I am spending the week-end indoors, for a change

    I think you are doing really well with your photography and your skills have improved tremendously, in the field as well as PP work. And Steve is right, you are having great fun!

    Regarding this image, there isn't much to complain about and we just offered a few suggestions on how to improve things in PP. Your passion for wildlife really shows in the way you capture your subjects, as well as in your "stories" which I enjoy reading.

    PS You don't need to worry about spelling my name, just copy it from somewhere and paste, LOL.

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Gabriela I'll always worry on folks names,I guess it some silly english politeness thing ,but I'll never be able to spell. It makes for some fun ,we have never met but I smile a lot I was making a joke of myself maybe I didn't get that out very well,also...... Please please always pick out these details and make suggestions,they are fantastic for me. I always view them ( well any form of critique) as a gift and a positive one at that. Gabriela you good folks have very high standards,I feed of these little pearls of wisdom they help me grow as an image maker I sent some RAWs to Steve recently,bless him ya know what he's like quietly helping us along behind the scenes,he gave me some very brief pointers. some might have seen as blunt.They weren't it was just brief and bang to the point To me it was so helpful I couldn't put it in to words in my replies to him . I'm struggling a bit to access sharpness in an untreated RAW those brief to the point comments have been a godsend to me a massive help I love this place because you guys give me your honest thoughts . I hope my last reply didn't oppose that

    Steve yup having a blast, ha ha It be me not the gear at fault. Buddy i'm a simple man the camera is just a tool I know i'm not yet getting the best out of,as of yet, but there is no denying how much fun i'm having learning.
    Many thanks both

    stu


    ps Oh Steve, I've only just seen the file you sent me I'm not too far away , you have just made her pop a bit more not so flat ,presumably a selective curves tweak?

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    presumably a selective curves tweak?
    Sort of...

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Hi Stu a pleasing shot, noise well controlled. The image could do with a bit more " thrutch "as my old grandpa would say, maybe have a look at red/orange luminosity at raw stage and curves luminosity in PS.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    Hi Stu a pleasing shot, noise well controlled. The image could do with a bit more " thrutch "as my old grandpa would say, maybe have a look at red/orange luminosity at raw stage and curves luminosity in PS.
    Hi Jon how ya diddlin buddy? apologies for the slow reply bit busy!

    Jon...trutch thanks for that it's an utterly new word for me,...a bit more grunt/ strength is that what you mean? i love these local words.

    i'll take a look at the luminosity soon... certainly at the raw stage later at PS Thanks for the of the tips

    stu

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