Waiting, stalking, building, searching, planning – just a few methods I normally use to take a picture. Before last December I would never really have considered paying to use someone else’s hide as being on that list. As it was though, George, Richard, Adam and I decided a pre-Christmas get-together was in order and we opted for a few days with Northshots at Pete Cairn’s place in the Cairngorms.

Hides for hire seem to be a growing phenomenon of late and Pete has a number around his land and in the adjacent Forestry Commission woods. Hides and viewpoints are available for subjects including crested tits, woodpeckers, woodland birds, buzzards and of course, red squirrels. On arrival he showed us round the hides (all well stocked with bean bags and cushions) and gave us tips on how to get the best out of each. The latter advice was considered a big help given the restricted time available both in terms of days and hours of daylight.

In addition to a few days out looking for ptarmigan in the mountains, I opted to spend two and a half days with the red squirrels, mostly in the jumping hide. Pete’s advice was that for the jumping shots we needed 1/800s to 1/1000s to get a good sharp shot. With the sun approaching its lowest point on the horizon and copious amounts of looming grey clouds, the light was rarely, if ever in our favour. So things weren’t going to be as easy as thought…

Although the standard side-on shots were doable at ISO 3200 and upward, none were really that sharp or good enough for anything other than web use. So I had to think outside the box… or hide rather…

Out came my second camera (Canon 40D) and my shiny, unused, new Sigma 15mm lens along with a whole manner of other bits and pieces and I set up a remote system. Playing with position and settings I was able to obtain a range of shots that I might not have even considered had the light not been so poor.

All in all, the trip was very successful. My preconceptions had been challenged too. It’s not necessarily going to be just a case of turn up and shoot at these hides – jumping squirrels are super fast and you never know what the conditions might throw at you, so be prepared to experiment. Would I go back? Yes. There are still ideas for the squirrels to be executed and having missed out on the ptarmigan (Adam got some cracking shots) I would like to re-visit the mountains too.