Squirrel
Photography
Processing
The two examples below show "Before & After" an edit. The first image being an unprocessed RAW image (iso 3200) and the second one being first run through DxO PureRAW 3 to reduce the noise. I then did the following edits:
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Cloned out distracting details
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Darkened the left side of the frame
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Darkened background
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Desaturated background
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Added contrast and vignette
This amount of rework is something I am experimenting with. It's as much work I would typically do to an image. I usually like to keep things as faithful as possible. This was a fun example of what is possible and how to draw the observer's eye to the subject, but it's rather overkill for me. Prior to this, I would have just cleaned up the messy looking log.
This next image is from the same series, while I was experimenting with processing.
Wide Angle
I usually photograph squirrels with a 85mm or 135mm lens (above), but since I can get very close to them, I decided to try a much wider angle. In the case of the above and below images, I used a 24mm (the same field of view you'd get on a standard smartphone camera lens). This allows me to capture much more context in the surroundings, although being a full frame f/1.4 lens, I am still able to blur out that background (to help isolate the subject). It helps to be able to shoot silently when getting this close to skittish animals, but even if your camera doesn't have this feature, the squirrels will get used to it if you build them up to it slowly.
Infrared
Since I have an infrared camera, it seemed rude not to at least try photographing them in that wavelength. There is unfortunately not a huge difference to squirrels in infrared light, but one thing is their eyes. It's usually difficult to see the pupil in squirrel's eyes because they look all black in most lighting. When they do show up in infrared, they are considerably more clear.
Thermal
When I got my hands on a basic thermal camera for my phone, I tried it out on squirrels and immediately found something interesting. This squirrel had a damaged paw and the video shows that with high levels of heat.
Vintage Cameras
I have only been seriously interested in photographing red squirrels since the Pandemic, so the equipment I've been using has been relatively new. Technically, I did start with the Sony A7 (2013), but that was grey squirrels in London, and I was not really successful until I upgraded to the Sony A9 (2017) and Sony 135GM lens. Over the last couple of years I have been collecting old digital cameras, so I have been trying to use them to shoot squirrels. The below image shows a comparison between a Sony A1 (CMOS) and Sony A390 (CCD). The latter showing the squirrel's red coat in a much more complimentary way against the heavy green cast forest background. To see more samples and thoughts about images from this old DSLR sensor technology, see my dedicated page here.
Apex
The Sony A1 combined with the Sony 135GM lens is a formidable combination for photographing squirrels. Sure, it's about ten times the cost of the previous combination and is definitely in the overkill category, but it really can deliver on quality when all the stars align! For anyone that doesn't have limitless funds or wants to cut down on the weight that you carry, the next section is for you...
Lightweight & Budget
As cheap and geeky as it can be to use older DSLRs for up close squirrel photography, it's certainly not an easy or pleasant experience. My mission here was to find a cheap and light system that was also powerful and highly capable. Up until very recently, this combination of features would have been hard to find. For less than €800 and 800g, the camera and lens combination that took the below photo feels a bit like a miracle.
The75mm f/.2 AF APS-C Sirui lens is only €380 brand new! That gets you a 113mm f/1.8 full frame equivalent, which is a really good sweet spot for this kind of photography, and its 69cm close focus also means you can get just the squirrel's face and hands in frame if you want to. Combining its decent AF speed with the Sony ZV-E10's animal eye-AF, silent shutter and decent burst speed makes it feel like a mini Sony A9 + Samyang AF 135mm f/1.8, while costing and weighing half as much. That's just insane! Although you lose in-body image stabilization, and an optical viewfinder (which I don't really need for this photography anyway), you do gain a fully articulated rear screen, meaning that low angle portrait shots are now possible too.