The Squirrel - Friend or Foe

The Squirrel - a friendly creature looking for a nut? or a calculating vermin searching for a effective way to spread it's rabies to humans?

To some, squirrels are considered vermin, rats with fluffy tails, rodents that sit waiting in trees to leap out and jump on your head while you're walking by. Then they'll bite you in the neck and give you rabies. Well maybe if you had a peanut butter jar on you at the time and were mean to squirrels in a past life. However, in my limited experience squirrels tend to run away. "It's that guy with the camera! Head for the hills! Run away!". It depends on where you go. In the parks where kids feed them, the squirrels are much more adventurous when getting closer to us humans. In the more remote areas these nut gatherers tend to zip away once they see or hear you approaching. These animals are perfect for honing one's photography and long lens skills.

With a camera housing a 70mm to 300mm zoom lens I found myself at Allan Gardens. A park noted for it's odd, shady, alcohol drinking characters that seem to linger around day and night. Not the best of places to be at night and during the day the park seems drab and slum-like. I noticed a few squirrels running around some trees and decided to try shooting them. It's incredible how fast they dart around, leaping from one branch to the other and running up and down the tree bark as easily as we walk along a sidewalk. I tried shooting at first using the camera's built in autofocus. The problem is that the subject has to be in frame. By the time the camera was focused and I pressed the shutter button the subject had moved.

Another problem I encountered was staying on a side of the squirrel that had more light. I didn't want a dark blob of the squirrels outline. So the squirrel would move, I would move. This went on for a few minutes until I figured the squirels was literally running circles around me. I stopped in one spot and waited. Switching the camera to manual focus I anticipated where I thought the squirrel was going to go. Once in frame I pressed the button. Not too bad (see above).