Yesterday, this interesting news article came up.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology ... story.html

And now there is this humongous debate whether this is fake or real. While the details of the squirrel are so fine, apparently when the camera is on a timer, usually the focus is locked, and so it seems rather odd that the camera could have focuses to the squirrel when the couple (the main focus) had already settled. But if it was photoshopped in, than it would seem silly to sharpen the squirrel and blur the background as the background, taken as it is, is the main focus.

So yay or nay?

I think it is genuine picture. Like you said, if it was photoshopped, it would have been made more realistic. Obviously, one could have purposely made it blurry, to let people believe its authentic. But I think it's real one.

I just checked, and my camera focuses at the end of the countdown, not the beginning. I suspect most cameras do the same - if they focused at the beginning of the countdown they'd risk catching the timer-setter walking back to join the rest of the group or the group still assembling, and thus be out of focus.

I also believe that this was originally published in National Geographic magazine, and they would presumably have had a higher-quality original and concluded it was real.

Aww.

It's probably real, seems sort of a random thing for someone to fake...