Whilst at a nature reserve in Winnipeg, Canada, I noticed these Richardson Ground Squirrels had a network of burrows on an “island” mound in the parking lot. Rather than photograph them at eye level, I opted to crouch at the bottom of the mound to capture all the flowers that surrounded their bolt holes and how they would see the world. Nervous of my presence, they would gingerly emerge periodically to make sure the coast was clear.

Using a Nikkor 300mm f/4 af-d lens with a 1.4x teleconverter, I had enough focal length to fill the frame, without disturbing the critters too much. I had to wait a while for the squirrels to appear, so being crouched for extended periods without a tripod has quite challenging physically for me.

The weather was lovely and sunny and the blue sky gave a nice contrast to the yellow of the meadow flowers, with the darker tone of the fur making the squirrel stand out. The shallow depth of field with blurred elements in the foreground and background also helps to draw focus as well.

Other than cropping sharping and colour correction, nothing else was done to the image.