Red fox portrait

Thanks for the looking at my last post. I'm finding the comments extremely useful.

Here is a portrait of a particularly memorable fox taken on a recent trip to Essex. I had the 300mm prime on the camera at the time and this shot stood out for me during processing. It may not appeal to everyone, but I hope you like it.

Techs: Canon 7D, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/320sec, tripod. Fullframe. Imported with ACR and processed in CS5.

Big thanks to Phil Shaw for allowing this to happen!

C's and c's welcome as always.

Thanks.

Superb close up Phil but I find the comp slightly uncomfortable for some reason. I appreciate though nothing you could do about it with that set up !
Cheers
JR

I think the ears missing are detracting somewhat. But love the detail and wish it were mine.

Very good detailed shot Paul.

Keith.

It's a great shot, Paul, but I also find myself missing the ears. On the other hand the detail, especially in the large version, is fantastic.

David

I can only echo the above comments Paul. Not an ideal comp but still a very nice image showing great detail.

Matt

Excellent detail but I think it is the missing ears and top of head that gives the composition an uncomfortable feel... Don't know how you feel about cropping but maybe a tighter crop, taking some from the top to just above the base of the ear and a bit from the left to just behind the ear, this would put the eye roughly on one of the horizontal thirds and keep space for the fox to look into...

Thanks for the comments. Also, thanks for the input on the crop ideas. I've been a 50/50 on whether this works or not, but the crop ideas have given me food for thought. Thanks Phil! This is why I keep coming back to this forum.

Thanks everyone.

I quite like this Paul. It is an unusual crop and to be honest I didn't really miss the ears as I concentrated on looking at the detail in the eye and muzzle. Well done for trying something different. The foxes here are really difficult to see being hill foxes and are usually over the other side of the Glen before you can say Reynard! I have followed fox prints at over 1,000m in snow in the middle of winter. What do they eat up there!

Nick.

Thanks Nick!