Round Tailed Ground Squirrel Family

[Ian Cassell]

I was sitting in my car watching this female when, one by one, the youngin's popped their heads out of the hole to look around.
(Taken on a vacant building lot in my community)

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/2000sec f/9 ISO 800
NR on BG in Noiseware Pro

Levels, crop, sharpening in CS5

[Cheryl Slechta]

Ian, what a cute group I think you could do more noise reduction in the bg (Topaz works well also). I'd be inclined to crop the lightest area on the left (or darken it) and maybe darken the fg a tad. We don't have these in Florida - I assume they live underground?

[Kerry Perkins]

Ian, the harsh light has killed this one for me. What was your thinking to go with ISO 800 here, you certainly didn't need it for the amount of light and it gave you a lot of noise in the bg. As you know, I shoot with the same rig as you, and I would have been at probably f/8, ISO 400, at 1/2500 or more shutter speed. You just don't need this much light here. I agree with Cheryl's suggestion about the crop. Definitely a cute group and good eye on your part to see the opportunity.

[Gary Thompson]

Hi Ian, a round of noise reduction would help your background and I think the highlights are very bright too. I agree you could loose a bit of the left side and still be fine here. Did you sharpen the whole image? There seems to be some artifacts in the background. I usually only sharpen the subject of the shot to avoid adding noise to the background. It looks like a great family outing going on here and dad is on high alert. A nice find on you part.

Gary

[wendell westfall]

Ian, I agree with the critiques, and would try everything possible to Photoshop it into better shape, for the group scene here is priceless to my eye.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, friends. I'll take this back and see what I can do with it. I know where the little guys live too, so I've been going back to see if I can do this better. So far, I've only seen two of the little tykes. Perhaps a predator has been at work.