Love this pose! and the bark colours and textures are great.
The bright areas are distracting, and might be darkened quite a bit. It would be a little hard around the fur edge and whiskers, but I have some ideas that might (might) work
If you like, I’d like to work on this image this weekend - and post my ideas.
Ok with you?
Sandy
Hey, sure. No problem. Good luck with the furry, whiskery edges 
d
Great pose and I think you have just the right amount of the trunk, Dave. The background is a bit bright, but I’m not sure you can do much about it without it looking odd.
A stunning image and great composition !
Like others suggested, just burn the highlights and see the magic.
Topaz re-mask and other programs should help.
Will do my best to get to it this afternoon.
S
Sandy, you’ve caused me to look up, and get the trial version of Topaz ReMask and here’s a masked and treated version of the squirrel’s background selectively darkened. I think I might just have to own that app.
I like this image and the extra contrast in the repost does add a bit more pop. Nice pose you captured and good exposure on the squirrel.
Hi Dave!
After going through the re-post, I somehow feel that there is considerable increase in the contrast, as a result, grey tones are darker but whites are still bright if not brighter.