Day of the Squirrel
At the beginning of April, I visited the Boerenglop bird hide in Klazienaveen, The Netherlands, together with a fellow photographer. The weather was mostly cloudy, which meant I quickly had to work with high ISO values. Instead, I wanted to experiment with slower shutter speeds, allowing me to keep the ISO lower. This worked out quite well, although you do need a fair bit of luck to capture a truly sharp photo. Motion can certainly add something beautiful to a photograph, but for me, the eye still needs to be sharp. In the end, I came home with more than 3,000 photos, of which I only kept around 30.
During our visit, it was surprisingly quiet when it came to birds, but the squirrels were everywhere. Three or four of them were constantly taking turns appearing in front of our lenses, while we could also spot them moving around in the background from time to time. In the end, I came home with an entire series of squirrel photos, which was certainly not a bad thing. They are incredibly cute to watch, and at one point, one of them even walked right past us. We had to stay completely still at that moment, but I really enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to observe one from such a close distance. Once you have experienced something like that up close, visiting a zoo feels quite different afterwards.
Besides the squirrels, I also managed to take a number of bird photos. I do notice, however, that I am becoming more selective about which bird photos I keep. By now, I have built up a beautiful collection of different bird species, so a photo really has to add something for me to want to keep it.
In the end, the most important thing is that I had another fantastic day out with my camera. That is what I enjoy most about photography: being outdoors, observing wildlife, trying something different, and simply enjoying the moment. Although I certainly wouldn't mind a little more sunshine on my next visit to a bird hide.
Until next time,
Quirina
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