Animals #467

This is a really engaging image, and gorgeous subject, but suffers from an incredibly distracting area in the top right of the image. Cropping the image square so that we have just frog and plant in-shot would allow the little guy to take centre stage.

This is a really interesting crop, and a good example of the negative space approach to composition. It's great having the snowy backdrop to the snowy owl. I would have liked to have the image in my Top 10, but can't be certain from the uploaded file how sharp the owl is, which is critical for the success of the shot.

This is really interesting scene, and fabulous to be able to get so close to these beautiful creatures. The shot could be improved with a couple of things - ensuring that the main subject is properly lit, which in this case would mean shooting the other side of the animal, and also making a decision to either include the animal's feet fully in the scene, or go the other way and crop mcuh more into the legs.

A very solid shot of this fallow deer, blending well into its surroundings, which themselves make for an interesting composition - the pleasing horizontal join of the grasses with the ferns, the sloped bands of fern in the distance, and the blurred foreground flora providing some lovely depth to the shot.

What incredible skill from the photographer in capturing this speeding jay as it comes in to land! The pose of the bird is just stunning, and crucially the eye is really nice and sharp - no mean feat on a subject like this.

Such a great shot, and well done to the photographer for getting out on this wintery day and being rewarded for their efforts. It's a gorgeous animal, and the face-off is very engaging. I love the low setting for the main subject, and it's an effective use of negative space. I'm 50/50 on whether the animal higher up the shot is a useful addition. I'd be tempted to try it without and see what the effect is.

This is an adorable cat portrait, and a close runner-up for me. That huge eye staring up at the window is incredibly engaging, and the patterned curtain provides an interesting backdrop to the animal.

This is a really strong animal portrait, and I dearly wanted to include it in my Top 10, but I feel that it is let down by the crop that has been used. A tall vertical crop could still work for this image, but not with space both above and below the subject, only above. In fact for showing on the web I would propose that a square crop would allow much more of the (very good) detail in the image to be visible to viewers. It's also cropped a little too tightly on the right hand side. Great idea and great execution however, very well done.

A beautiful animal portrait, and my winning shot in this New Joiners 'Animals' contest. The colour palette of the background, matching so closely the colour of the dog, is wonderful, and I'd be intrigued to know how much work went into it. The shallow depth of field leaves us guessing about the dog's surroundings, and the crisp focus on the dog's eyes engages us firmly with our subject. Well done!

The idea is a good one, nice tight crop on the animal, and a good composition. Sadly the image isn't sharp, and as a minimum the eyes need to be pin sharp for a close-up portrait like this to work. You would also want to look at darkening the bottom corners, or cloning out the bright corners completely, to focus attention purely on the cat. Also be careful of shooting at 2500 ISO as you have done here, unless absolutely necessary. The quality of the image has started to degrade a little as a result.