About the Image(s)

This image was taken a few years ago from a hide in an area of the Yorkshire Dales where there is a small population of red squirrels. Unfortunately, red squirrels are endangered in the UK so getting to photograph them is a real pleasure.
The image was taken with my Olympus OM-5 with a 40-150mm lens at 150mm. The camera settings were auto focus, aperture priority, f3.2, 1/250s, ISO 3200. I wanted to create a wintry scene, so the following changes were made in Photoshop after initial processing in Camera Raw:

-Removed the distraction in the bottom right using cloning and “content aware” fill.
-Expanded the canvas and used “content aware” fill to give a little more space below the discarded shell.
-Copied the background layer and masked the squirrel.
-Turned the background mono.
-Added 4 of my own textures to the background in different blend modes at varying opacities.
-Added a cooling filter to the background
-Painted over the eye of the squirrel to remove the reflection and added a catchlight
-Desaturated some areas around the edge of the squirrel, especially the tail, to remove green tints.
-Changed the colour balance of the image.
-Added some falling snow.
-Added a vignette using a curves layer.