An intrepid trio for photography in the urban forest

Squirrels qualify as one of the most obvious, non-human denizens of the urban forest. Without urban trees they would not survive. With a rich and diverse woodland of trees amid the roads and buildings of the city, they thrive.

Often chased by dogs and coyotes, they are relatively wary. And no tempting a squirrel to come closer with peanuts just to take a picture. That would be contrary to wildlife photography ethical principles. It could habituate it to an artificial and unreliable food source.

And significantly, it would fail to depict the creature in its natural habitat with natural behavior patterns.

So as with all wildlife, you have to maintain a safe distance, one that does not intrude on the organism’s environment and can record the creature’s normal way of life. But this critter is fast, over 15mph (25km/hr), and can skitter around and up the other side of a tree trunk in seconds. A worthy photographic challenge. The only solution… the zoom lens.

In spite of the Eastern Gray Squirrel’s name, this species normally occurs in both grey and black coat colors. In our area we see the occasional albino individual as well. So when I spied a squirrel with a rare, reddish color variation I had to make his portrait.

After several trial shots on the move, the squirrel finally settled down briefly on a fallen log. With the Canon SX60 HS lens zoomed out to maximum, I managed to capture a shot with the animal close to the center of the frame.

Satisfying… but hardly my idea of a portrait. When the image was cropped using Corel Photoshop Pro, however, I finally had a full body portrait.

Like all nature photographers, however, I longed to get more close up and personal still. I wanted what is known in painting as a bust, a head-and-shoulders shot with the little rascal staring right into my eyes.

So crop again, but the results were less than pleasing. Pixelation had started to appear. I could see his whiskers alright, but instead of being straight they had little jagged edges.

Next Topaz Photo AI (TPA) was summoned to come to the rescue. The final result was wonderful. Just what I was hoping for.

Just one more touch. Corel Paintshop Pro was employed again, this time for some additional blur in the background to help the squirrel’s mischievous personality pop out a little more.

The SX60, CPP and TPA are my intrepid technology trio for imaging the urban forest. I now think of them as the three legs of the easel supporting my creation of the great forest image. That’s my goal anyway.