Alaska Brown

It would be nice to see a larger version to evaluate the image but it looks like you have a lot of detail here. The 'gull art' in the background is a bit distracting though.

Nice pose and composition, the white smears do distract a little

You must have been pretty close to this big guy! Great shot, as he licks his chops thinking of the salmon. I don't have any problem with cloning out bird poop. It doesn't add a thing and it does subtract, in my opinion.

Hi Guy,

I'm not a big fan of cloning things out myself (other than dust specks on the sensor), and there are other paths one can take to reduce the distraction effect (and I do find the gull streaks slightly distracting here). The approach I would take here would be to selective tweak the exposure to minimize those streaks. In this case I would darken the background around 1/2 to 2/3 of a stop and also lighten up most of the bear (it's a little shaded in your image). This would reduce the distraction and make the bear stand out more. But just a thought...

As Tonia pointed out this image looks quite sharp and I like the focused look it has. Nice shot!

Cheers...

Brad

The gull art in the background does not distract me at all. I think this is a pretty great shot. Good for you.