If you’ve seen a little squirrel in the park begging for treats or browsing through picnic leftovers, you’ll probably agree that they’re one of the cutest things ever. Perhaps the incessantly curious and hyperactive nature of squirrels is exactly what inspired British photographer Max Ellis to start shooting these cool pics of everyone’s favorite woodland rodent.

Ellis is a professional freelance illustrator and photographer from the U.K. who caught our eye with the beautiful wildlife photography on his 500px page. Although he has tons of awesome photos on his account (which everyone should check out, by the way), his photos of squirrels with everyday objects were by far the cutest.

It seems like there’s quite a bit of work behind these perfect shots: he lures squirrels with sunflower seeds, cookies and toys to keep them interested and to get them to pose the way he wants in front of the camera. He even constructs tiny gadgets for his models, like cannons, barbells or wizard’s box.

Ellis studied photography at University of Brighton and has been working as a professional photographer for 15 years, moving between photo-illustration and pure photography. Ellis uses Nikon equipment for all of his work and shot these adorable images using the Nikon D4 and a 70-200 2.8 Nikon lens.

Curious Squirrels

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