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How to shoot squirrels

Techniques

24 October 2007 12:59

When photographing relatively tame urban wildlife such as grey squirrels, it’s possible to get really close to your subject.
 
Parks can be busy places, so find a quiet corner away from the main crowds where you can work in peace without too many interruptions.

Being budget conscious, we didn’t splurge on expensive wireless remote control kit. Instead we used a 20ft air-released trigger attached to the camera body by a cable release adapter bracket (less than £25). It’s a bit fiddly to get it to fire the shutter perfectly but once you’ve cracked it, everything works a treat.

Focusing must be done manually, on the exact point where  you expect the squirrel’s eye to appear in frame. Apertures of f/8 and narrower are best but are light-dependent. You could improvise using a cuddly toy as a stand-in for precision focusing if you prefer. With the camera on the tripod and in position, focusing and exposure sorted, finally we just needed the park’s grey squirrels to pose in the right spot.

You’ll need some bait to tempt your subjects into position – try a few hazelnuts rather than salted peanuts or crisps. Having found our location, set up the camera and decided on a composition incorporating a typical park bench, all we needed was to get a squirrel to sit exactly where we wanted it. This required just a strategically placed hazelnut and 30 minutes shaking the bag of nuts!