I have always dreamt of taking photos of animals smelling flowers. I came close in February '23 (see earlier post) but messed up the shot. The backstory behind this shot was that I was sitting in the Limekiln Hide (Irish Photography Hides) photographing the buzzard and the red squirrel with Bernadette. Richard the owner had placed a hawthorn branch in flower along the trunk the squirrel runs so photographer could take 'cute' garden bird images. But, both of us moaned that it was getting in our way of getting nice squirrel shots as it was always just in the frame as the squirrel busily munched on nuts. I noticed that the squirrel adopted a slightly different pace (slow and more deliberate) as it moved on. I took a deep breath as he stalled on reaching the branch, the hand went up, then the nose went up. I pressed my finger on the shutter and kept it pressed for a burst of shots. Unnoticed by me at the time, my gimbal and moved up slightly and the squirrels feet were clipped in all but two of the burst of shots, and the eyes were not sharp in one. I thought I had ruined it again, but it just needs one shot to work!
I had my usual shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. with an open aperture of f/7.1 and auto ISO came to 3200. I had the R6 body attached to my Benro Gimbal that was screwed into the bench provided by Richard.
This photo has been lucky for me, it helped me win the Nature Photographer of the Year and Nature Image of the Year in Dublin Camera Club and also won the Irish Photography Hides monthly competition in Facebook.
The 'cute' bird shot that was the purpose of the branch (Siskin in the Rain)
The branch in the way of the running squirrel shot
The squirrel before it reached up, smelling a lower branch
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