The curious and comical little red critters keep photographer David Robertshaw coming back for more. There’s something about the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, adorable red squirrel.
In the UK, Red squirrels still populate places like Scotland and Cumbria, while southward they’ve been overrun by grey and black squirrels. That’s one reason Mr. Robertshaw, 43, gravitates toward the cute, rust-colored tree rodents. Another reason is purely the entertainment factor they offer.
“They’re quite unpredictable and unique in the way they behave, so they’re a joy to photograph and just watch in general,” he told The Epoch Times.
He will often travel from his home in Halifax to Whinfell Forest to catch them on camera. Mr. Robertshaw is always after something a little different from the everyday in his wildlife photoshoots.
“What inspires me is that you can capture a moment in time that’s never going to be seen again,” he said. His aim is to capture something people can relate to, that grabs emotions, and that they will remember.
He looks for things that will leave people saying, “Cool! I’ve never seen that before.”
That’s why he often packs a few extra, mini-size props for his photographic journeys, hoping to capture scenes of little red squirrels interacting with unlikely objects.
Those objects vary: from little shopping carts to tiny umbrellas; from really small barbecues to a mini-size putting green with cute golf clubs. Occasionally, he'll even lug along a second camera and tripod in hopes of catching the curious creatures snapping off a few shots—or at least appearing to.
The real trick, of course, is getting his furry forest friends to interact with the human prompts, and appear to use them as we humans do.
“They’re very inquisitive,” Mr. Robertshaw said. So, if you happen to leave something in their neck of the woods for long enough, “they will go check it out, whatever it is, which is why it tends to work when you put props there.
“They’re going to have a little sniff around and have a look to see what’s going on.”
But it’s easier said than done.
The photographer has to get up before sunrise to bag the shots he’s after. “They’re probably going to be hungry, so it’s a good time to see them,” he said. After reaching the forest location where he expects they might gather, he normally sets up two props to increase his opportunities. Then, after laying out some nuts as bait, he dons camouflage, and from then on it’s a waiting game.
Amid the twitter of birds, he hears rustling in the treetops. The telltale screeches of red squirrels soon resound. Red squirrels tend to chase each other but are more timid when humans are around.
“They know you’re there,” but they’re wary, he said. “I found that when I sat there for long enough—normally about two hours—with the camera, not being active, they kind of get used to you as part of their environment.”
He waits in position. He might get a shot. Or not. If the red squirrels do anything that looks like something we humans do, Mr. Robertshaw will take a burst of shots.
There might be—and usually are—one or two stills that get lucky, that look particularly interesting.
The red squirrels oblige him regularly, he said, but not always. Many, many times, Mr. Robertshaw has come away empty-handed. But it’s all part of the fun and the challenge.
“I guess, the thing which I enjoy about it is the challenge of doing it because it’s not easy. If something’s not easy, I enjoy it,” he said. “I'll go back and make regular visits and, ultimately, I might get what I am reaching to achieve with it.”
