Gator look out

Interesting pose here. The image is a bit contrasty; I would regain some highlight and maybe some shadows too. I don't know what you're using for processing, but I hope you're shooting in Raw. With the narrow depth of field the f/5.6 gives, you must choose carefully what you want to be in focus. For this one, maybe the eyes? I'm not sure I see anything that's really in focus. A tripod might help if it's camera movement, but it doesn't look like that. Be sure the auto-focus is working properly. Maybe manual focus would help. A smaller aperture would give you more DOF which would be more appealing here I think. The 1/1600 s shutter speed can be considerably lengthened to achieve the smaller aperture and still freeze any movement. Check out Tony Kuyper's tutorials and Photoshop actions for resizing and sharpening for web presentation. A large image can be posted in addition the standard one too. Keep shooting!

Hi Justin,

I think Ronald gave you some great tips - and I agree with pretty much everything he said (and especially his "keep shooting" advice!). One of the hardest things a newer wildlife shooter has to do is to partly "separate" themselves (and their emotions and memories of the event) a little from the photo when assessing it. The question I always pose myself is "What would someone who WASN'T there (and thus has no memory shaping the interpretation of the image) think when they saw this image?" Sounds like an easy thing to do, but it can be really tough to be fully successful at this "distancing" - and that's why critiquing the images of others can be an incredibly good way to improve your own photography. Hope this makes sense - I think you'll get what I mean when you think about it...

Cheers - looking forward to future contributions from you (both images and comments)...cheers...

Brad

It's an interesting angle but I think more depth of field (smaller aperture) would improve the shot. Keep shooting and posting; it's the quickest way to learn.

I agree with the suggestions already offered, but want to add that it is a strong positive to "think outside the normal" in how wildlife is viewed. Good job with that.