![\"rock](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/rock-squirrel-9030-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nToday’s post is a change of pace for me involving Rock Squirrels, my own ignorance about my subjects\u00a0and my evolution as a nature photographer.<\/p>\n
A recent conversation with Mia brought up the subject of Rock Squirrels, a species that I was unaware of which embarrasses me a little because they’re apparently common in much of the southwestern U. S (including parts of Utah) and as the largest ground squirrel within their range they’re physically conspicuous.\u00a0 The conversation brought back memories of some of the earliest nature photographs I ever took – images of some kind of squirrel I\u00a0encountered at Farmington Bay WMA\u00a0seven years ago.\u00a0 I never did identify the species of squirrel and had forgotten about the images until a few days ago.\u00a0 So I went rummaging around in an old computer until I found them.\u00a0 Sure enough, they were\u00a0Rock Squirrels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a01\/400, f\/7.1, ISO 200, Canon Rebel XIi, Canon<\/em> EF100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I photographed this squirrel on May 6, 2007 in the rocks lining one of the ponds at Farmington.\u00a0 I remember being surprised at how large it was (length 16 – 20″ and wt. about 1 1\/2 lbs)\u00a0and by its long, relatively bushy tail (for a ground squirrel).\u00a0 This species more closely resembles typical tree squirrels than it does typical ground squirrels.<\/p>\n I looked for these squirrels every time I visited Farmington that summer and never found one again until…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/640, f\/13, ISO 400, Canon Rebel XTi, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n 5 1\/2 months later (Oct. 21, 2007)\u00a0when I encountered this one in the same area as the first squirrel.\u00a0 I estimate that I’ve visited Farmington between 500 and 600\u00a0times since the summer of 2007 and I’ve never seen one there since (or anywhere else for that matter, that I’m aware of).<\/p>\n For several reasons these\u00a0photos remind me of my development as a photographer.\u00a0 The first image was actually taken as a\u00a0JPEG rather than shot in RAW.\u00a0 It’s been so long since I’ve shot in JPEG that I’d forgotten about the angst I went through when I was trying to decide whether or not to switch over to RAW.\u00a0 Man, I’m glad I made that switch early in my “career”, even though learning to process RAW files was a bit of a struggle for a while.\u00a0\u00a0Last night I actually winced when I realized that I was going to have to process a\u00a0JPEG for this post.\u00a0 I also winced a little when I noticed my camera settings for these\u00a0photos – they’re not what I’d choose today.<\/p>\n These images (and their subject) may not hold much interest for\u00a0some but for me they were a trip down memory lane.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s post is a change of pace for me involving Rock Squirrels, my own ignorance and my evolution as a nature photographer.<\/p>\n![\"rock](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/rock-squirrel-9827-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n