She hadn’t counted on this ground squirrel hogging the foreground.
Photo by Melissa Brandt, from the Your Shot Daily Dozen at National Geographic magazine
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Mytake
Stately, majestic, spontaneous. BTW, who are those two intruders on the background?
The Slapster
“Don’t buy that it’s real” because – funny un-planned things can’t happen in life? Go ahead, say it. You know you want to – it rhymes with CromoFlop. Sorta.
Cute pic, and I BELIEVE that’s it’s 100% real.
ted
It’s just as well. Woulda been a lousy shot otherwise.
I find it stretches credulity, but not impossible.
CharlesH.
This one’s too funny…. and if that picture gets around, we’ll probably see that squirrel photoshopped all over the place.
Glen Hinckley
Its probably real the squirrel is in focus and they are out of focus. Which is what most digital cameras would have done. they look for eyeballs and faces of the closest object ie the squirrel, and focus there.If its a fake its a damn good one.
Kulia
This picture makes me so happy. If it were mine, it would be our Christmas Card photo for sure. Sweet!
SenorMysterioso
“we’ll probably see that squirrel photoshopped all over the place.”
like where?… Im bored and havent had any work for a while, need to exercise my adobe muscles
coconutnut
Lol, that’s such a cute/awesome photo. Banff is an awesome place to visit too. Perfect photo, perfect backdrop.
PK
From the facial expression of the squirrel, it looks more like the squirrel actually is using the opportunity to declare war with humans, though it had mistaken the still camera as a video camera.
star4589
Sometimes you feel like a nut….and well…this happens! Super awesome picture!!
Shelley
That is the funniest picture I’ve seen in a long time. And a charming picture, too. How lovely.
nononono
What are you doing chipmunk. You are not part of that family. You don’t even know what a camera is. Get out of here chipmunk.
TJ49770
The real caption reads: I was on vacation, set the timer on my camera to get this great shot of me standing in front of this lake. I couldn’t believe these two practical jokers ran and sat down behind my back.
shanghai
its fake,
why is the focus so perfectly on the squirrel?
should’nt the focus be on the 2 ppl instead? a nice PS
Sean Martin
@shanghai:
Maybe, grasshopper, someday you’ll understand how technology actually works.
nise
I lived near Banff in the 60′s, the squirrel’s or chipmunks were very tame, ate right out of your hand, I still have my photo of it. This is a very big tourist place and the wildlife has grown up with people about all the time!
Bill G.
This is not a real picture…why would you set up a self-timer so that a portion of where you were sitting was blocking you? Nice picture, but I believe it is photoshopped or something, not real.
Winston
The photo has to be real. The camera is autofocusing on the critter and not the couple (as was mentioned). The perspective and lighting are absolutely consistant, and those whiskers are just too perfect to have been dropped in.
Most of all, you can easily imagine the little guy being curious about the the camera’s delayed shutter countdown beep.
Friend of Melissa
No this picture is real
Melissa is actually my old babysitter
they often take nature vacations and enjoy photography
and do alot of timed shots, but yeah no lie, this is 100% legit i have talked to her since and she has gotten hits from National Geographic a korean newspaper as well as the calgary newpaper
Kevin
This is fake. You have all been fooled. This same picture is showing up as people’s profile shots with the same squirrel in the foreground, doing the same pose, with different backgrounds.
Guy
Shanghai, Kevin, Bill G. and Timm (aka wet blankets),
Give me a break! There is no doubt in my mind that this photo is real. I live in Calgary, not far from Banff, and the ground squirrels (some call them gophers) there are the most curious, almost tame creatures you could imagine. Totally credible, totally real!
Leo
This is definitely real. Almost the same thing happened to me once just outside of banff. In our case the squirrel was standing behind us on top of a rock.
Alice
What a joyous photo on the front page of the newspaper. These little ground squirrels sure are curious critters.
saarinen
Love it, but yes, of course it is fake. Keep in mind that even the top DSLRs don’t autofocus after you set the timer. The squirrel is in perfect focus yet the people are blurred out, meaning the focus was on the squirrel when they hit the timer. If you want to get more technical, on a bright sunny day like this even a crappy camera would default to a high F stop which gives you nearly infinite focus meaning both the squirrel and people would be in focus….which would be far less dramatic. The comments about the tame squirrels in this area are completely true, and only lend to the fact that they saw a tame squirrel, got a close up of it and photoshopped it in. If this site would let me attach photos you would see how that same squirrel appears to be in my office right now! Nonetheless, still a great photoshopped image that makes me smile.
wcg
Melissa did mention that her husband had a remote and was clicking away at it after the timer snapped. Logically, this priceless beauty was one of these remote controlled shots. After the remote click, the camera auto adjust the focus and snap. It would be nice if Melissa could post all of the pictures including the blurry ones at Flickr. It would be cool to see the pictures before and after this timess classic. Thank you Melissa for sharing this moment with the world. Our best regards to you and Jackson.
EddyQ
This is an obvious fake. Notice that the squirrel is in perfect focus but the couple and background are not in focus. When the button is pressed the camera will lock in the focus. It should have focused on the background. Once the finger is lifted and the squirrel jumps in, the squirrel should be out of focus but it is not. So the “squirrel” (more likely a stuffed squirrel) was planted before the button was pressed.
EddyQ
I just noticed something else … notice that the couple is sitting to one side … obviously so there would be room for the stuffed squirrel to be in the center.
BBYITSU
I was at Lake Minnewanka same day – Columbian Ground Squirrels are everywhere – not afraid of humans – and little clowns.
Banff67
The Banff Crasher Squirrel has been caught on video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/banfflakelouise2
nnn
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that is funny but not fake
NOT FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111
What a crock
That is about as fake as they come. Nice try, but hopefully the public will not be fooled by this; it is a photoshopped picture and its clear.
The Other Melissa
It’s really funny that people think this is fake. What a bunch of party-pooping conspiracy theorists!
Anyway, just wanted to say that this picture made me laugh a lot. Love it. I have a very similar photo where my cat popped into frame at the last second. I’ll have to pass that around and collect annoying know-it-all comments as well.
Way to go, Melissa and Jackson!
Igor
I love that squerrel, Melissa is very lucky to have the chance to live something like this. Please send this photo to Kim Jon Il and Almadineyav, may be they would love this song of the life. Hugs, Melissa. Congratulations.
Nicolle
Hey, assholes: A ‘GROUND SQUIRREL’ IS NOT THE SAME THING AS A SQUIRREL. This is a gopher. Plain, pure and simple.
[source] Growing up in Canada.
[source] Caddyshack.
Jdizzle
Totally real. You can see what a photoshopped one looks like with your own picture and it is not as good as this REAL picture!
Go to this to get your own squirrel!
Sharon
It was certainly considerate of him not to block Melissa and Jackson in the background…although I’m sure he was not thinking of them in the first place as his curiosity got the best of him.
It’s the cutest photo! Thank you for the laugh!
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