What a Mouthful!

Beautiful - pika, light, the contrast between the texture of the rock and the soft fur of the pika, the mouthful of leaves: I like everything in this picture!

Awesome shot! You have great detail in the fur, a catchlight, and a cute pose! You sure are lucky to have found one of these guys to photograph.

Nice DOF choice - nice detail in the face and chest. Everything sharp would have been boooring.
Great eye contact, nice rock, and that mouthful of goodies is a trip.
Nice!
Sandy

Great image Kurt! Very sharp!

impressive detail and clarity - I like everything abou this image

Hi Kurt, these certainly are 'cute' characters. Having the vegetation in the mouth is a nice touch and gives more interest to the image. Personally I would have preferred a more 'uniform' colour to the BKG, but having the dark area to the right isn't a deal breaker. Also would you consider perhaps say a 5x4 format rather than square, so the eyes are drawn even more to the subject?

TFS
Steve

Neat and Crisp ! I actually think the shallow DOF works well here. In addition to the face and vegetation the interesting foreground rock is in focus as well ! I am with steve on cropping this to a 5x4 horizontal.

Lovely rich color and light. You have isolated him nicely and that is a mouthful and a half he is carrying! I tend to agree with Stephen that you could pull in even tighter to a different ratio for even better effect.

Thanks for the comments everyone! Stephen, I actually went with a 4x5 first on this and didn't care for it much, so I changed to the current crop. It may have something to do with the fact I use a 4x5 a lot and wanted something different, but not sure...it just didn't feel right to me.
BTW, I of course also wish the dark shadow wasn't there, but these little ones hang out in loose rock areas referred to as talus fields (which many of you may already know), so getting anything with a smooth BG is a big challenge. What makes it even more challenging, is the speed at which these critters navigate the talus fields....darting in and out of rocks. Pika will definitely sit on top of rocks to chirp, yawn and take in the morning sun, but when gathering, they do not sit still. I managed this shot by pre-focusing on the rock and waiting and trying several attempts to get him as he ran across the rock. For this one, he managed to stop when seeing me for about 1 second.

Great capture with good dof.

Agree with the previous suggestions. I like the granitic rock colors and the way it works with the pika, not the kind of rock we see them on here in Jasper. Very cool little critters.

Great capture Kurt! Man, what a mouthful is right... I like your DOF here with the face nice and sharp. Great image.

Great capture Kurt - I know how fast these guys can be when they're scurrying around preparing for the cold months, almost seems like panic. I'm not wild about the crop, but it works.

Since it overwhelmingly seems people want to see a 4x5, here it is. Again, my main reason for not using this crop, is most of my current Pika images use the same crop and I really was trying to do something a little different. However, I certainly appreciate the feedback and thought I would give it another chance

This made me smile Kurt; excellent shot. The repost crop is definitely a better presentation for the web IMO; I would suggest to keep both on file.

Great shot Kurt! These little guys are hard to get and you got it just right here. Nice and sharp with perfect DOF, nice lighting and great composition. Getting him with a mouth full of greens is a great bonus.

Congrats on the WP!
Sandy

Stunning shot, Keith! Of a Pica, for cryin' out loud. And it has an entire plant ecosystem in its mouth! Way to go.