Whitetail Doe & Snack

Hi Sharon. Have you tried a vertical crop? That way the OOF brush is minimized. I generally try to get the mouth straight but I don't mind this one so much because she has some food hanging out of her mouth. Hope that helps.

Sharon,
If you have any extra room on the right I would add a little as it looks a little tight there but it's not a big deal. I agree with Chris that a large format vertical crop like an 8X10 would probably work very nice for this. Part of me feels there should have been more room at the bottom for the virtual legs, but if there was it would make the deer higher in the photo and I don't think I would like that as much. As for your #2 question I think I would like it better not chewing, but that's a personal preference thing I think.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments. I will "re-do" and use the non-chewing and re-post.

I personally like the idea of a vertical crop. It would bring the focus more on the deer. I don't mind the mouth because she is chewing food, just picks up some natural action.

Hi Sharon,

I like the diagonal flow here, but like the others find the subject a little too tight to the right side of the frame. When I look at this image my first thought is going back to a more standard horizontal aspect ratio by cropping from the top - I'd take a slice off the top that would leave in the in-focus grasses on the left side of the frame almost touching the top of the frame. I believe this would strengthen the dynamic nature of the diagonal lines in the image.

You had tough lighting to work with and while your exposure is good, it's a bit of a shame that so much of the subject's head is lost (or mostly lost) to shadow. I'm personally not a huge fan of having multiple out-of-focus zones in an image, especially if they stretch from one side of the frame to the other, but this is a personal preference issue.

I have no problem with the deer being in the act of chewing - given the shadows it is not very noticeable (and even if it was I don't think it would be in any way objectionable).

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

I like the composition quite well as is. The ears indicate here concern about your presence, caught here mid-chew I think. I think a bit more light on the face would have helped here, but you had zero control over that. Attractive image!