Red Squirrel Photography Surrey and Sussex

I don’t just create portraits of human beings, I’m also an animal photographer and I’m delighted to photograph animals of all shapes and sizes. I don’t undertake studio work since this is either impractical or impossible for many of my subjects. Also an artificial environment is counter to how I like to work. Instead I always work within the animal’s natural habitat, be that the family home in the case of domestic pets, or the place where a wild or rescued animal might live.

We’re lucky to have some wonderful wildlife here in the UK and occasionally I have the opportunity to photograph red squirrels. These are such enchanting little animals, it’s impossible not to smile when you’re around them. They are however highly athletic and they are very fast movers, particularly when compared to their grey counterparts. This can make them quite challenging to photograph. Animal photography is unpredictable and we can’t readily tell our clients exactly what we’ll come away with – any animal photographer will usually need plan B, plan C, and if necessary plan D up their sleeve. But it’s this unpredictability which makes animal photography so rewarding and unique. No set of images will ever be like any other, in contrast to the often staged and posed pet photos which emerge from some traditional studios, images which often show little of the animal’s character.

Part of my philosophy with wild animals is patience – not only do we need the right viewpoint and the best light for the image we wish to create, we have to capture our subject doing what we want them to do. In my case this involves natural behaviour without human intervention (which is somewhat different to how we photograph dogs and cats, where we will at times engage them and play with them). This beautiful little squirrel paused just long enough for me to photograph him enjoying a hazelnut.