Coyote

Jay, this is certainly a long shot. You show a good view of the environment. I like the head down stalking posture. On my monitor it looks a bit soft.

Hi Jay....I am not trying to beat you up here, but hope to give you a couple things to think about. As mentioned, the inage does look a tad soft. Even on a long shot such as this when going for an animalscape, definitely try to get your subject as sharp as possible. The other thing I would do on this in processing, is rotate it a bit. The horizon is a bit crooked. It needs to touch of clockwise turn. On the good side, I like the comp, the different bands on the dry lake bed and the cattails blowing in the wind.

Hi Jay, you already received some good recommendation here, which I shall not repeat. I would just like to add that you sure had difficult lighting to deal with here. I have realised that shimmering heat can have a negative impact on sharpness, which might have been the case here too. You placed the subject in the center of the frame, which does not make for a very exciting comp. Depending on what is outside the frame, I would have pointed the camera a bit higher and to the right to get him off-center.

For a long shot it is OK IMHO. Thanks for sharing. Hope you get a chance for closer shots.