Almost two years ago, I headed up the M9 to Argaty Red Kites near Doune, to photograph red squirrels leaping to & from trees, branches & feeding areas. The experience was exhilarating, in terms of all the nature around me, in their woodland area. However, it also proved extremely challenging, as I had very few photos to show for my efforts. I found that optimal camera settings were hard to achieve, in the dark wooded area and as a result, only a few of my shots were acceptable. As always, I still published the photos at the time, so that I could look back at them, to see where I could improve.
Well, after two years, I felt that I was a slightly improved photographer and possibly better equiped to face the challenge of photographing these wonderful wee creatures, in full flight, in this woodland setting! How wrong was I…!!
Once again, despite the beautiful weather and bright sunshine, the woodland area was still very cool and shaded which meant that my ISO settings were high, particularly as I wanted a fast shutter speed and a wider depth of field. As a compromise I waited for ribbons of dappled sunlight to come through the trees and brighten up different sections of the woodland area. I then just kept my fingers crossed that the red squirrels would move into the areas of light.
After 3.5 hours, which passed in a flash, I would say that I still didn’t quite achieve what I wanted to achieve, with these squirrels jumping & flying about. However, what I will say is that it was probably the most therapeutic 3.5 hours I’ve had in a long time. Delighted to have come away with some shots of the jays, GS Woodpeckers, and lots of others…but the leaping red squirrels, whilst there has been a slight improvement, I’d say they’re still a work in progress!!
Here are some of the better shots…. the other 2,000 photos have already been binned!!
CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE THE IMAGES
