Daily Odds and Ends

Man what a great shot. It is so rare to catch them together.

Made Rutt's suggested corrections and swapped out the photos.

There are two lessons here. The first is that even though you have set a nice dark spot in the eyes, you still seem to be afraid of the shadows here. Those eyes are going to be plugged anyway, no reason they have to limit what you do with the rest of the image. I moved the dark endpoint of the L curve inward to establish a dark spot in the wood and steepend the curve though the highlights and midtones to add weight to their faces and contrast to the fur. The second lesson is this: you have to watch those yellows when LAB steepening those natural browns. It's easy to get them out of whack relative to the magentas. Sometimes this calls for either steepening the B curve a little less than the A curve (the opposite of what usually works for human flesh.) Sometimes (for example when you want bluer sky or water in the background) it calls for a different slope for the yellow half of the B curve than for the blue half (while keeping the neutral point anchored.)

Here is my effort: http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/83897546-O.jpg

A psd of the LAB version with the curve layer intact is here: http://chezrutt.dyndns.org:8030/rutt/sq1.zip

Excellent, your wildlife photos are so great. -Laura of XinaCat

Thank you! I have been thinking about squirrels and posing, which they don't, but I photograph squirrels much the same as someone who shoots human models. Sometimes, like the squirrel looking through the flowers or like these youngsters up in the tree, you know the shot is there its just capturing the moment. The squirrel on the fence and the one on the stone were 'in the moment' events, big thing is to get into good range w/o distracting them. I want to catch them doing just what they do, bribery won't work:-)
Each sq shot I post probably takes 15 shots, 3 or 4, sometimes less, are good, but only one will stand out. I wish I could do an animation, because each shot, even in burst mode, will be just a bit different. Even when they seem like they aren't moving they are, one shot might have good eye catch lights, the next one that looks 'almost' the same won't.
So that is how the sq shots come about...Just in case anyone is interested.:-)

I like the one with the tails better too! It's just too cute - love the way they're both looking down on something interesting.

wow, they both are very good !I think they're posing for you - I'm sure now they really want their own squirrel book !they're quite a pair !

Adorable shot, Thusie...make that 3 for the shot with the tails!!! What's a squirrel without a tail???

Thanks Ginger, Andrea,

Well that's 2 for the shot with the tails, Snappy liked that one best as well. Teach me not to lop off sq tails won't it?:-))

I like this one lots (!!!) but I actually like the one with the tails even better. I think it helps me orient where they are.