Self-Portrait With Ground Squirrel

Posted by Queuebot in Animal, Pictures on August 9, 2009 at 1:15 pm



Melissa Brandts wasn’t trying to take a photo of this ground squirrel at Banff National Park.  She’d set up the camera’s timer so that she’d have a nice picture of herself and her husband, with spectacular Lake Minnewanka in the background.

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

Link – via Arbroath

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.


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COMMENT

65 comments to "Self-Portrait With Ground Squirrel"

  1. LisaL
    August 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

    Lol, very cute and funny :D

  2. Mytake
    August 9th, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Stately, majestic, spontaneous. BTW, who are those two intruders on the background?

  3. Kalel
    August 9th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    Squirrels are known for being cheeky.

  4. Skipweasel
    August 9th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    Splendid!

  5. Lauren
    August 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    Life is very good sometimes. :)

  6. The Manticore
    August 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    haha daaaw. Cutest Photobomb ever!

  7. Natalie S
    August 9th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    Love it!

  8. Timm
    August 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Awesome picture. I don't buy that it is real though.

  9. SenorMysterioso
    August 9th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

    It's real Timm

    Where are his underpants?

  10. The Slapster
    August 9th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    "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.

  11. ted
    August 9th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    It's just as well. Woulda been a lousy shot otherwise.

    I find it stretches credulity, but not impossible.

  12. CharlesH.
    August 9th, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    This one's too funny.... and if that picture gets around, we'll probably see that squirrel photoshopped all over the place.

  13. Glen Hinckley
    August 9th, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    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.

  14. Kulia
    August 9th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    This picture makes me so happy. If it were mine, it would be our Christmas Card photo for sure. Sweet!

  15. SenorMysterioso
    August 9th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    "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

  16. coconutnut
    August 9th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    Lol, that's such a cute/awesome photo. Banff is an awesome place to visit too. Perfect photo, perfect backdrop.

  17. Ali S.
    August 9th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    Hahaha! Now that is a keeper.

  18. Kalel
    August 9th, 2009 at 11:54 pm

    Put that squirrel in from of Clinton and Kim Jong-il.

  19. just-euphoria
    August 10th, 2009 at 3:02 am

    nice.. :)

  20. just-euphoria
    August 10th, 2009 at 3:03 am

    very nice :)

  21. covax
    August 10th, 2009 at 4:27 am

    Lol, that’s such a cute/awesome photo.

  22. Christophe
    August 10th, 2009 at 5:33 am

    Peek-a-boo!
    cute ;)

  23. Thompson Touch
    August 10th, 2009 at 7:52 am

    This is Awesome!

  24. Gauldar
    August 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am

    I agree, this is the best!

  25. Gail Pink
    August 10th, 2009 at 9:03 am

    Totally Awesome! And still a lovely photo of the couple!

  26. PK
    August 10th, 2009 at 9:44 am

    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.

  27. star4589
    August 10th, 2009 at 11:02 am

    Sometimes you feel like a nut....and well...this happens! Super awesome picture!!

  28. Jo
    August 10th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Hilarious!

  29. Shelley
    August 10th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    That is the funniest picture I've seen in a long time. And a charming picture, too. How lovely.

  30. Alan
    August 10th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    Well, one out of three of these people seems a little squirrely.

  31. nononono
    August 10th, 2009 at 1:59 pm

    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.

  32. Johnny Cat
    August 10th, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    @ nononono:

    They miss you over at Webkinz.

  33. LuluZ
    August 10th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Adorable. Curiosity wins, and so do we.

  34. TJ49770
    August 10th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    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.

  35. shanghai
    August 11th, 2009 at 1:37 am

    its fake,

    why is the focus so perfectly on the squirrel?
    should'nt the focus be on the 2 ppl instead? a nice PS

  36. sc0tty
    August 11th, 2009 at 1:47 am

    how did he train those two humans to sit there like that?

  37. Sean Martin
    August 11th, 2009 at 5:18 am

    @shanghai:

    Maybe, grasshopper, someday you'll understand how technology actually works.

  38. nise
    August 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am

    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!

  39. Bill G.
    August 11th, 2009 at 11:01 am

    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.

  40. Winston
    August 11th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    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.

  41. Friend of Melissa
    August 12th, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    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

  42. Kevin
    August 13th, 2009 at 4:22 am

    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.

  43. Guy
    August 13th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    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!

  44. Leo
    August 13th, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    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.

  45. Alice
    August 13th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    What a joyous photo on the front page of the newspaper. These little ground squirrels sure are curious critters.

  46. robgoldy
    August 13th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    Animal Foreground Bonehead!

  47. saarinen
    August 13th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

    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.

  48. wcg
    August 14th, 2009 at 12:52 am

    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.

  49. jan
    August 14th, 2009 at 4:05 am

    Ha ha ha, really funny :D

  50. EddyQ
    August 14th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

    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.

  51. EddyQ
    August 14th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    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.

  52. BBYITSU
    August 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am

    I was at Lake Minnewanka same day - Columbian Ground Squirrels are everywhere - not afraid of humans - and little clowns.

  53. JimRL
    August 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Squirrel-That-Gatecrashed-Hol iday-Snap-Features-in-Hundreds-More-Pictures-Tnanks-To-Web-Trickery/Me dia-Gallery/200908315361841?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Page_Strap_Teaser_ Region_0&lid=GALLERY_15361841_Squirrel_That_Gatecrashed_Holiday_Snap_F eatures_in_Hundreds_More_Pictures_Tnanks_To_Web_Trickery_

  54. Banff67
    August 15th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    The Banff Crasher Squirrel has been caught on video:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/banfflakelouise2

  55. nnn
    August 16th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

    that squirrel is so snekey!! but good pic

  56. nnn
    August 16th, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    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

  57. Fake George
    August 16th, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    Funny but fake, I have seen this before.

  58. What a crock
    August 16th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    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.

  59. samuel
    August 17th, 2009 at 8:41 am

    http://img.sa.mu/el/data/me/squirrel.jpg

  60. The Other Melissa
    August 19th, 2009 at 8:33 pm

    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!

  61. Igor
    August 20th, 2009 at 7:05 am

    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.

  62. Nicolle
    August 21st, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    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.

  63. Mr.Ilarijs
    August 24th, 2009 at 6:11 am

    I do this all the time, check out!!!

  64. Jdizzle
    September 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    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!

    http://www.lutralutra.co.uk/squirrelizer/

  65. Sharon
    September 9th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

    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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