Now and again I work together with Solent News and Photo Agency in the UK to get a bigger audience for my images. Solent News and Photo Agency is an independent press agency, they send news around the world.
Every day, their content flows directly into the news: photographic and feature queues of the biggest newspapers and magazines across the globe. It is an around the clock, real-time service at the coal-face of the industry. Solent has a million-image archive and a photo syndication department.
One of my short image stories is syndicated by the agency. The background story of my squirrels on meltwater:
These images were taken at a wildlife hide Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands. I took these images just after 1.5 weeks of very deep snow and freezing temperatures (-13 degrees Celcius). The snow and ice were finally thawing on Wednesday February 17, 2021, when I came to visit the hide. I visit this particular wildlife hide since June 2020, once every month. With my camera I document all the wildlife that comes to visit within the changing landscape of the forest. The red squirrels (three in total) caught my attention when they tried to catch the nuts from the water surface. They make all kinds of jumps, and also run and swim in the water. They are very agile. I see them every visit.
In front of the wildlife hide is a small shallow pool of water a few meters across, then there is a small opening that ends in a very long deep pool. There is about 28 000 liters of water in this pool! In total the pool is about 4.5 meters wide and 20 meters long. The hide is on private property, which is good so there is no disturbance in the area.
After a few really cold days the squirrels were very hungry. Sometimes they were play-fighting along the shore of the pool. They entered the scene of my photographs by going into the layer of meltwater on top of the frozen pool. They were searching for nuts. Sometimes they ate the nuts straight away, other times they caught a nut in their beaks and ran off with it. I also saw them burying nuts to have a small stack when times get bad again.
I don't know if they like water. They need to be extra careful due to birds of prey that may be around when they are in the water, like northern goshawks, sparrowhawks and buzzards which are regularly seen in the area. I do know they are not afraid to get wet. They are agile swimmers, opportunistic and used to life in the forest, including the pool.
It was thrilling actually, to see them so close. Normally they only enter the water in the small opening about 4 meters away. Now with the ice and meltwater on top, they seem to walk on water and were only 1 meter away from me. The reflections on the ice and shallow water layer were even better than ever! I especially love the action shots, because it reflects the agility of the animals as I experience every month when I study them - including the marvelous reflections of the action!
Although the activity of the three squirrels was constantly happening due to their apparent hunger, their fast moving bodies are quite difficult to get on camera: pinsharp, with the reflections, in a well chosen composition, with a horizon that is flat and in vivid lighting conditions. As a photographer you need to prepare well before taking the shots: ISO, shutter speed, pinpointing the focus point exactly right, aperture and moving along as fast as the action takes place. I hope to catch a bit of the spirit of the animal: its behavior, its challenging ways of living and in action. So yes, a lot of patience and practice! Red squirrels are quite common in the Netherlands. But I did hear that they are Near Threatened in England, Wales and Northern Ireland due to the introduction of grey squirrels from America. My images are an ode to the red squirrel, hoping they won't vanish from the precious forests as they certainly are an icon for a healthy forest!
