Bobcat (w/ cropped version)

What a way to start ! A bobcat in a very engaging setting ! In these situations, getting a shot is an achievement in itself and you did great here.

Welcome to the Widlife Gallery. I like your first post in it. For a quick shot I see nothing really wrong with your photo. Your composition looks good to me, as well as the color and detail in the wildcat. Maybe brighten it just a bit. Thanks for sharing.

I nice enocunter and opportunity to get a shot of a usually shy animal. Looks like you've got enough sharpness here to look at cropping. I'd use the rule of thirds and place the bobcat in the lower left point. You should be able to crop out that OOF green stuff on the left edge.and also some of the empty space on the top and right that doesn't help the inpact. You got a good look from him/her so I think you could call this one a keeper.

My brother had the same incounter with a red fox last week, first trip out with a dslr. His results were the same. Very good consdering you don't have any time or much experience with new gear.
To enhance you could: lighten the photo a little. crop intowards the cat. For me a vertical crop around the cat with the best lighting being right behind him might be my first choice. You'll have a small print capabilty with that crop but it will maximize your focal point. play around and see what you like best. its digital...its quick to play with and you can always revert...lol

Welcome to the Wildlife gallery Tonia and great shot to start off with!

As Peter suggested, I too would probably crop to bring the Bobcat up closer, which I think you could do without losing much detail. If this were mine, I'd likely try to tone down the light colours of the vegetation on the behind the subject by either lightly going over it with the Burn tool or making a selection of the lightest parts and decreasing Brightness a touch.

Thanks for sharing and looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Hi Tonia and welcome to the Wildlife Gallery. From what I understand about these cats is that they are not easily seen, which obviously makes them a difficult subject to get in front of your lens; so congrats on getting this opportunity and bringing a keeper home! You have received already some excellent critique which I shall not repeat.

Hey Tonia,

Welcome to NPN and to the Wildlife Gallery in particular. This is a really great first post and I'm already looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Like Vincent said, you've already received some good feedback and I won't repeat it. I will make one "big-picture" comment tho': Prepare for "conflicting" comments on images and always keep in mind that the most important person to please with your images is yourself. As an example, someone suggested a vertical crop - but if I was going to crop this I would go horizontal and, in doing so, remove a fairly large chunk of the foreground. My point is simply that in this gallery (and really in all the NPN galleries) it's really "different strokes for different folks" and you'll never please everyone with a single shot (and you can't accommodate ALL feedback).

Cheers...looking forward to seeing more from you...

Brad

Thankyou so much everyone for your comments & critiques. I will play around w/ some crops when I'm not on a work computer!

As per suggestion, here is a cropped version. Does this work better for you?

I like the vertical version much better. It brings the cat in to better focus and view. In the horizontal the cat tends to get lost.

I will not add to the critique already given, but will congratulate you on this sighting and getting a workable image, Tonia! I too know these are rare to sight in the open, even though I live in Africa