An Unusual Squirrel

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 7, 2013128 views4 comments

I was out on the nature area this morning, when I happened to see what looked like a black squirrel run by. Same place that I had a similar sighting last week. But no photo. As I was watching some deer and staying put, I kept checking to see if he might come back. And he did. Several times. I caught him with the camera several times, of which this is the best with the movement and carrying an acorn. The photo is not the best technically but not too bad. I had to crop it quite a bit to get it at a reasonable size in the image and to get rid of some blown out whites on the top. Seems to have fairly good detail in that black fur coat which is good. Black color phases, called melanism, occur in most animals but it takes a rare combination of genes to make it happen. I'm not positive but I believe this is a fox squirrel based on his size. This is a first for me. In addition to cropping, I warmed this slightly and sharpened for the web. Comments and critiques are welcomed.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with EF 70-200mm f/4L with 1.4 TC = 280mm
1/250th at f/5.6 and ISO 800
tripod

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 7, 2013 at 7:37 PM

Good catch of the squirrel in action. The detail in the squirrels coat is very good. I have seen black fox squirrels and gray squirrels. And in Colorado black Abert's squirrel. Hopefully you will see this one again and have even more photos to share.

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

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on October 7, 2013 at 8:45 PM

Excellent timing to catch him about to leap to across the broken portion of tree. The light is very nice on the squirrel, sorry can't help with id on him, although the background grass is a bit bright. Although you mentioned that this is a significant crop might be worth trying to crop even tighter to eliminate a strip from the left side to just miss those two vertical thin oof twigs. Over all an interesting action photo Peter.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on October 8, 2013 at 1:45 AM

This is a really cool image, Peter! Very intriguing with great textures and somewhat monochromatic color palette. Sheer perfection on the moment of capture, too! The acorn certainly puts it over the top, but it's strong for many other reasons as well. I'm guessing stepping down with the TC would have helped the overall IQ a bit but you were already pushing the limits a bit in terms of SS and ISO I suspect. I do agree with Gary re cropping from left to eliminate foreground OOF vertical branch, and when I scrolled down to read the comments I immediately noticed how much stronger the image appeared to me if you cut about 3/4in off the top of the 720px version, eliminating most of the rather hot, smooth deadfall in the URC. Try it just by scrolling here...it just goes "boom!"