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Aug, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken high atop an alpine meadow in Banff, Alberta, Canada. It was just a few months ago.Time
It was around mid-day when I snapped this photo. We were nearing the end of our hike and just about came full circle when I saw several of these ground squirrel babies watching me curiously. The mosquitoes were like nothing I have ever seen. I literally had the hood of my jacket tucked over my head and tied tightly as I tried to stay still and capture some images, and to keep myself from being eaten alive. Luckily I had several layers on.Lighting
The lighting was all over the place that day, and quite difficult to work with as the mosquitoes kept eating my fingers every time I adjusted the settings. I got down low to the ground to shoot at eye level and was fortunate enough that my body movement didn't scare off my adorable little subject.Equipment
My gear and set-up is quite simple. I use a Canon EOS 6D Full Frame body with a Tamron 150-600 lens. I don't use a tri-pod, mono-pod, flash or any remote. All of my wildlife photos are all hand held. I only started working at wildlife photography and pushing the limits of my equipment and developing my skills this summer. I met up with an old childhood friend who is a pro wildlife photographer here in Alberta, and was lucky to have him share his knowledge and experience with me. It's better than having google at your disposal when you are out in the field!Inspiration
There really was no inspiration or fantastic story behind this photo I'm afraid. When you actually find wildlife that you can shoot, you don't often have time to plan a shot before that animal either runs away into the woods, down a hole, or just out of sight. In this case, as I mentioned with the army of mosquitoes attacking both myself and the subject, I lucked out with the timing of the mosquito on top of the head. I find it a challenge to photograph smaller, less sought after creatures such as this. They have much to offer in terms of behavior and beauty.Editing
It wasn't until a few months ago that a good friend and well respected nature photographer pushed me into manual mode and into RAW. So, jumping right out of my comfort zone I followed his words of wisdom and picked up the latest version of Lightroom as well. I now process all of my images using only that program. I try and keep my photos looking natural and with that right amount of 'pop'. It's a huge learning curve to say the least, and I haven't even touched the surface of what I could do with a final image. In this shot, I really wanted to keep the fur looking as fine and immature as possible, which was difficult if I played around with it too much.In my camera bag
Besides enough granola bars to feed me for a week, I bring my Canon 6D and Tamron Combo as mentioned above, as well as the Canon 24-105 F4L. For old times sake, I still carry my Panasonic Lumix LX-3 that I bought in 2009. I just can't part with that one!Feedback
These columbian ground squirrels can be found throughout the rockies. The babies on the other hand, are luck of the draw. These types of subjects are an excellent way to develop your overall skills for wildlife because they are everywhere. Photographing them has made me more aware of my cameras abilities as well as my own. It's all about patience. The more comfortable you are shooting animals, the greater the chance the animal with be comfortable around your camera. Be patient, don't move around too much or too fast. And above all else, just enjoy watching them.
