My wife and I took a trip to a local National Trust site called Formby Point today. It’s well known as a habitat for red squirrels so I naturally took my EOS 40D along with me. It had rained in the morning, but by midday the weather was cloudy and bright. It was a bit chilly, but that wasn’t a problem as we were just happy it wasn’t raining.

Apart from red squirrels, Formby Point also features a wide variety of wild photographic interest. The squirrels’ area is mostly wooded so you can also find a mixture of birds and plant life, but my main aim was to get some sharp, frame-filled photographs of the squirrels. The squirrels at Formby Point are known to get quite close to humans so with a little patience I was able to get some of the shots I’d wanted.

The light levels were such that I was able to get away with hand holding my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM lens ISO 400-800 in order to keep noise levels to a minimum and allow the squirrel fur to be clearly seen. Most of the shots I took were at the 200mm end and around 1/200 second so subject movement was more of a risk than camera shake, but I was glad to have the 4-stop image stabilisation for the more shaded areas.

TIP: If you’re doing a similar shoot, take some squirrel food with you to encourage them to stay still long enough for you to get your shot!

Here are a selection of shots from the day: