Story of the Month-February

I have photographed red squirrels in Scotland a couple of times over the last few years. However all these images were on slide film and I wanted to get some new work with my digital cameras. I have a friend who lives in SW Scotland who is lucky enough to have 6 or 7 reds visit his garden daily. In fact some of them are so tame that he can hand feed them from his kitchen window. Last year the squirrels virtually disappeared but luckily in 2006 their numbers are back up again. As in so much of wildlife photography the background and lighting are as equally important as the subject itself. In the garden at this time of year the light only falls kindly for a couple of hours in the morning. I took a number of suitable props with me but I found that the only one that seemed appropriate was this old tree stump. To attract the squirrels I used black sunflower seed. Many people use commercial hazelnuts but these are about as natural as brazil nuts, UK hazels do not produce such huge nuts! I have also noticed that if I baited the squirrels with nuts they simply grab them and scamper of to bury them giving me very few opportunities for good images. Whilst I only had one good day of light and a couple of hours the experience was magical.