Jacob Wat  

Red Squirrel by Jacob Wat

March 2025 - Red Squirrel

March 2025 - Jacob Wat

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About the Image(s)

I am sorry this email is late. I received a new job in a different state and had to find an apartment for my new job and just signed the lease. Here is my attached email.

For this month I found a squirrel that appeared to have no fear of people so I tried to branch out into animal photography. I had a few issues with getting close enough to photograph the animal but I was able to get a few shots with the head in focus. The photos were taken around 2 pm on a cloudy day so the lighting was okay but not great. For editing I tried to do the bare essentials and focus on the subject. So I cropped the photo and then worked a bit on color and texture to try and bring the squirrel more into focus. Any tips would be greatly appreciated especially as photographing animals is a bit out of my expertise.

This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted

Mervyn Hurwitz   Mervyn Hurwitz
Nice picture of the squirrel, but my eye is drawn away by the bright sky on the left.
I took your picture into camera raw. Selected the sky. Reduced exposure and highlights in the sky only. Back in photoshop I cropped to concentrate on the animal and had to do some cloning to get rid of the branches and ghosting around the subject.   Posted: 03/08/2025 11:05:46
Comment Image
Mervyn Hurwitz   Mervyn Hurwitz
Probably needs some brightening also.   Posted: 03/08/2025 11:06:30
Cindy Smith   Cindy Smith
I agree with what Mervyn has done with this photo. I do like squirrels because of their whimsical character and nice textures. I do miss seeing his tail in this, especially if it's full and fluffy.   Posted: 03/10/2025 18:26:55
Pierre Williot   Pierre Williot
Red squirrels are very territorial and will « defend » their tree.
I agree with the comments above. The background is very bright and the squirrel too dark. Backlit images are always tricky. One could overexpose or use a « fill flash ». With a telephoto lens, one could also frame the animal tightly, so the bright surrounding is not affecting as much the exposure.
  Posted: 03/10/2025 19:59:19
Jaswant Madhavan   Jaswant Madhavan
The bright background is not something you can always control. Changing viewpoints is one option with more of the tree and less of the sky, or a little fill flash. Cropping in closer is also a good option and what I would have preferred. The dark BG in Mervyn's edit is very unnatural and the halo around the subject is a dead giveaway.   Posted: 03/14/2025 05:22:51
Diane Perry   Diane Perry
If this was shot on your phone well done on being able to get so close. The squirrel does have a lot of distractions around it. Always one of the challenges with shooting animals is that they rarely seem to be in the right position for the perfect shot.   Posted: 03/22/2025 02:19:52