Focus on the familiar

If you want to hone your wildlife photography skills close to home, there’s no subject better than the humble squirrel, says Jason Parnell-Brookes

Use a wide aperture, choose a simple background and zoom right in close to capture exciting squirrel portraits

Most people in the world have access to some kind of animal, whether domestic or wild. And many places around the world have some type of squirrel, or squirrel-type animal (such as a chipmunk). Almost everyone we know has, at some point, taken their Nikon to the local park and snapped some shots of a squirrel, but very few of the photos look like anything more than snaps. We’re going to show you how to take better pictures of creatures you might otherwise overlook.

We’re going to show you how to take better pictures of creatures you might overlook

Getting started is simple: just wander down to your nearest park or woods, Nikon fitted with telephoto lens in hand. After that, get on your belly and start photographing the wild animals.

In this tutorial we’re photographing grey squirrels in the UK, but you can photograph whatever creatures you’ve got locally. We’re sure you’ve tried this before, but there’s a few expert tweaks that you need to do to make your photos stand out above the rest.