Animals #465

This is nicely composed, and the cat's eyes are very engaging. It suffers from being over-exposed in the highlights, although not the cat itself, so some selective darkening of the highlights would make this a much stronger shot.

This is a lovely composition, and the Canada geese lined up ready for their portraits to be taken are full of character. It's also proof that great wildlife shots can be found as close as your local park. The post processing has left the image with a lot of banding in the sky, and greens and reds in the water, which can happen if too large an effect has been applied. Possibly this shot was underexposed and has been bumped up quite high?

Great shot. The composition, with the zebras both facing forward and looking into the open space on the left is very strong, and the high contrast black and white works well (I wonder why?!) I think it may be a little too bright for my eyes, and could do with dialling back a touch, and I'm not a huge fan of the edge effect that has been applied.

This is a great portrait, very creative and technically skilled. The shallow depth of field always delivers an engaging portrait, drawing the viewer in as it does to the eyes, well, 'eye' in this case!

I can't stop thinking about that cat out of the Shrek movies! I love this, lots of humour, well composed and good exposure. It isn't quite sharp on the eyes so might struggle a bit as a print, but on-screen it works brilliantly.

Incredibly endearing, and a lovely shallow-depth of field approach to this fox cub works pefectly with these surroundings. It does leave one wanting to know more about this cub's situation, and hoping that everything goes well for it!

Gorgeous colours, very crisp focus on the bird, a background that adds some interest but without distracting from the main subject, and a square crop that works well. This is surely an image that our friends over at Bird Photographer of the Year would appreciate, if it hasn't already been entered into that competition.

Another hugely engaging portrait, which makes me think of the wonderful animal portraiture of Tim Flach. The low-contrast tonal effect seems to be the perfect fit for the soft stare of the baboon.

I'd love to know more about this shot, and that might have seen it achieve a higher placing. Is this shot in the wild, and so was it an incredibly difficult subject to find and shoot, is the obvious question? It's a good composition, attractive colours and the bear is well positioned, facing the camera. The patterning in the top of the image suggests that it has been heavily sharpened, and does detract a little from the image.

Attention needs to be paid to the background of portrait shots like this, to ensure that it doesn't distract from the subject, and that it has some aesthetic merit. In this case the trampoline (?) fails on both counts unfortunately! Regarding the composition of portraits, it's good to have the subject's face off-centre a little, rather than dead centre like it is here. It would be good to see more of the dog's body, and for a formal portrait for the fireplace also think about taking off the PetSafe device (if that would be safe?!)

This is almost a brilliant shot! If it wasn't for the pesky intruder on the right of the image, this would have been a Top 10 shot and more. The composition is so solid, the textured rocks contrasting well against the soft hues of the water and sky, and the bird in a great pose. A bit of cropping on the right hand side and some skillful Photoshop work would remove the extraneous gull, and this would then become an excellent solo portrait.

What are you looking at?! Having this fella staring head on at the camera makes for a great shot, and there's a nice vignetting to the shot that focusses all the attention on him. Black and white definitely works well with this subject.

Putting aside how one feels about beautiful wild creatures like this being kept in the confines of a zoo, this is a very solid portrait that benefits from the square crop that's been used. It would benefit from a cloning out of the fungi by the sideof the cat, and a slightly tighter crop that loses the sliver of sky in the top left, which is a distraction. Likewise, unless there's a real need for a watermark to be used, it only draws the viewer away from the main subject.

Well here's a caption competition for this time of year! I love the tight crop, and that gives even more detail in those astounding heads and necks. It's a great portrait of these beautiful birds, and I hope Boz and Elvis will live long and happy lives :)