Chipmunk

Gallery: WildlifePosted September 2, 201282 views3 comments

Another photo from my trip to the Sierra Nevada last weekend. This was at Union Reservoir at about 7,000 ft. This individual was being very shy. Checking me out but not getting too close. He is about half to 2/3rds the size of the golden mantled ground squirrel I posted earlier. This is a really big crop as I couldn't get too close to him. Probably 1/4 to 1/3 of the original. Looks like it held up pretty well. I like the water background as it let him pop off the page better. The veg to the right could be a little darker. Oh, and this is a lodgepole chipmunk according to my field guide. The stripes on the head are what are used to tell the various species apart. Comments and critiques welcomed.

Tech Info

Canon 60D with 70-200mm f/4L @ 200mm with 1.4 TC = 280mm
1/500th at f/8.0 and ISO 200
handheld

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on September 2, 2012 at 8:35 AM

Hi Peter,

I like the lighting on the little chipper and the detail looks quite good (as per the larger version of the image). I'm in agreement with you that the bushes on the right are a bit bright. I'm not sure the horizontal placement of the subject works that well for me - with this kind of strongly directional pose by the subject I think the image would better for me if it was positioned more to the left. This would likely add more of that bright bush to the frame, but that could be (if you chose) toned down in processing...

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on September 2, 2012 at 8:36 AM

Nice detail and color in this image. Like the pose you caught this chippy in! Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Cross on September 2, 2012 at 7:29 PM

Thanks for the input on this photo Brad and John. I would have liked to have put the chipmuck further to the left but there was a large, dark, OOF rock just to the right of the frame which would have not helped at all. I could have used further cropping to get the guy off of center but decided I'd cropped enough already.

Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments