Coyote Portrait + repost

Roger, I think you made the right call by centering him left and right sides, although leaving more at the bottom to avoid the problematic square format would be something I might look at as an alternative. The entire face is very sharp and the colors are very attractive and seem true, nice job. The background is sufficiently oof, but you might have opened up a little to blow that background a bit more - your call. For me, the first thing I do when looking at coyotes, and probably most predators, is that I try and interpret what the body language and facial expression might be telling about the animals state of mind and intentions. This photo is hard to classify, I'm thinking he/she is acutally in transition, so not really clear what he/she is saying. The ears are back, the eyes locked on you and the facial muscles are tense, maybe aggression or fear; but the mouth isn't pulled back at the corners so maybe more of a greeting mode. As you mentioned he was facing you straight on, and from this angle looks like his hackles are up so again might be some concern for aggression. Interesting and well executed coyote photo!

Roger, Nice healthy looking animal my first impression was aggression, but I don't see that in the eyes. Depending on your lens a f5.6 would make a nice standout for the subject. most modern lenses are still very sharp at the f stop.

Good strong face on portrait Roger. The detail on the head and face is great but perhaps theree is a bit too much detail in the body which prevent the head from really standing out, maybe open up a bit to reduce DoF.

Definitely an eye-catching photo Roger! Techs look great, but I am not a big fan of the tight square crop to be honest. A vertical, preferably including the legs, would have been a more logical presentation IMO.

Roger, I tend to agree with Gary and Martin. Opening up to about 7.1 or 6.3 would allow for more concentration on the face. I also agree with your centering choice. I am ambivalent about the square crop. I have no real antipathy to it, but I think vertical might have been better.

Thanks all for your insightful comments. I think that, in the heat of the moment, I was so focused on having plenty of DOF (especially since I had the light for a small aperture), that I did not give any thought to the compositional benefits of having a smaller DOF. Lesson well learned!

I did check my captures from that encounter and all the portrait type shots are f/10. Also none of the portrait type shots includes the legs and feet. They are cut off just below the shoulders. I have reworked the photo by reducing the sharpness of the body in LR and have cut off an additional slice at the bottom to focus more on the head. Having the legs and a smaller f-stop from the beginning would have been the way to go.

Gary, your comments about the behavior are very observant. This coyote kept coming back to my truck, would look at me with some expression of aggression (but not truly all components) and then he/she would run off again to nearby trees. And the cycle would start again. There might have been some fear, but if so it would probably have been mitigated because the coyote kept coming back. The same thought about aggression: the coyote would run off but never took a run at me (I was behind the truck door). All the while, a second, larger coyote observed the scene from a distance away, well within camera range, but never exhibiting this behavior. This park is well frequented and I have no doubt that they are well accustomed to having people around.