California Ground Squirrel

I think this is pretty comparable in quality to some of our other squirrel FPs. The only thing I worry about is the tail being cut off, but it was flat and horizontal, so I would have had to sacrifice the close-up coverage of the body. I have more squirrel photos at Commons:Spermophilus beecheyi (the 5 captioned with "Thousand Oaks, California"), but the others aren't in any articles right now.

Creator

Howcheng

Nominated by

howcheng { chat} 23:20, 5 January 2009 (UTC) reply

Comments

• For FPC considerations I think you've hit the nail on the head yourself - the cutoff tail would do you in. The problem is that it just looks cutoff - side on photo, chopped off tail. It's not like say you've done a front on shot and the tail just 'naturally' disappears from view behind the body. Most 'cutoff' animal FPs are clear portrait shots or show some particular feature of the animal, but in this case it just shows the whole beast sans tail. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of the full profile view either, as it becomes pretty two-dimensional. I did like the second last one in the Commons gallery (where the lost tail is more natural), but the lighting is perhaps a bit harsh? -- jjron ( talk) 14:19, 9 January 2009 (UTC) reply
  • I just added the one you mentioned to Spermophilus. That one is backlit with fill flash, taken around noon (although it's winter here, so the sun isn't all that high). howcheng { chat} 17:25, 9 January 2009 (UTC) reply
    • That alt looks nice to me, personally. Fletcher ( talk) 22:31, 10 January 2009 (UTC) reply

Seconder

• The alternate was promoted as an FPC, could be closed now. Ceran ^→// forge 18:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC) reply