I generally don’t take photos of wildlife, because I don’t have the right equipment; the most telephoto lens I have is a 100mm macro, where I’d say at least 200mm is needed. Wildlife also tends to be difficult to capture, since the variables are so hard to control (especially with models that don’t understand verbal commands), and the chances fleeting. Every now and then, an opportunity presents itself though.
these are such great photos, jeff. your photography skills are amazing and i’m green with envy!
i am a total amateur when it comes to photography. i purchased my 450d canon late last year and am still taking mediocre pictures. also comes from a lack of time and no good ideas on where to shoot. my city (melbourne, australia) is beautiful, but i feel it would be cliche to take pictures of melburnian landscape that has been shot a billion times by others..
I should be the one who’s green with envy…my Canon 350D is getting old and limiting what I want to do with my pictures. It’s can be hard to do photos without the right inspiration; sometimes you need to force yourself to take pictures (a common exercise is one per day), because that forces you to look at familiar things differently when you run out of things to shoot.
It’s been a while since I checked in on your blog — that chipmunk makes me want to scream it is so adorable!
It also reminds me of my college days working as a tea server in the library. We had a chipmunk come to tea every day, so we’d leave him a Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookie, and chipmunk ate it with such zeal and cuteness!
So I mean that your photo captured the essence of the chipmunk. All it needs is a cookie…lol
I’ve had little experience with chipmunks, maybe because I’ve always lived in the city. Most of my brush with nature is squirrels, who seem much more antsy about approaching humans. I’ll have to carry cookies with me just in case I run into a chipmunk on my photo sessions.
Cute little chipmunk has joined the photos of nature that I keep for my desktop.
They can be bold little things when they get used to getting handouts and will even try to follow you back into the house, if they really get used to you and you haven’t been generous enough with the sunflower seeds.
I find that one of the risks of animals becoming too comfortable with human presence is boldness. In my childhood, I went to a petting zoo, and a set of rams was being nice and eating food from my hand politely until I ran out. Then they started charging at me. How soon they forget who’s at the top of all food chains!
Pitty!! (that’s any little critter with pitty pat paws).
I love chipmunks. But really your most amazing shot is the bird, who really appears to be looking the viewer right in the eye. Wonderful shot!
It’s very possible that the bird was looking at the giant lens peering at him or her through the opening in the bush. I find it interesting that everyone has their favourite shot out of the three. I was more settled on the chipmunk, although they may have had nothing to do with the subject itself, but how hard it was to capture it.