Help with cougar post-shoot shot selection for processing?

I apologize if this isn't a proper request for this site, or this forum, certainly let me know if so, but I'm finding myself a little at sea trying to figure how to proceed with the 350 cougar pictures I shot in Costa Rica a couple weeks ago. I worked on and posted one in the gallery, and told my little story with it, but clearly where I'm stuck is being able to even select which images have the best combo of "oomph" and technical possibility to result in a compelling final shot after putting in some work. As I mentioned in my posting, I'm really having trouble having any objectivity looking at my shots.

It would be a huge learning experience for me if any of you could take a few minutes to look at the 35ish images I think represent the best I have from the series and lend me the wisdom of your experience about which images have potential (if any) and/or the bones of a really good image if the processing is done right. My goal is to find the best compelling shot, or perhaps a set of 3, to put on canvas on my wall.

If so I made a flickr photostream of them and you should be able to see them, and leave comments if you're so inclined, using the URL
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0099009/gp/37850536@N02/nk87a6
and let me know in any fashion what you think or which might have potential.

And of course, again, let me know if this is an improper request to make of the members of this site, and/or if there are alternate ways to accomplish what I'm after, like getting in touch with a printing company, like West Coast Imaging, and paying for their expertise, or paying one of you professionals for your time and expertise if you'd be available to walk through my images with me.

thanks everyone,
Jeff

You are highlighting something that every nature photographer faces many times, especially now in the age of digital when the cash register isn't ringing with every click of the shutter. Some people here may enjoy helping you weed through your images but I think you ought to face up to the challenge yourself as the same situation will happen to you many times in the future.

With digital I shoot a lot more frames than I ever would have when I was a film guy. And when I have a cooperative and interesting subject I will take far more images than I should based on the knowledge that I may never have a similar opportunity.

When I get to my computer I transfer all the images from the CF card and immediately view them in Nikon ViewNX. My first pass is simply to enjoy the experience and get a general impression of the results: are they as good as I hoped or did I screw up royally with the wrong camera settings or focus or just from excitement in the field.

Then I go through them more critically and delete every image that has technical issues - any shot out of focus is deleted as I know that there is no "photoshop fix" for an unsharp image. I also toss out the frames with other major problems like bad exposure, excessive subject/light contrast, missing feet, background distractions.

I look at every image that makes these initial cuts at 100% to make sure the eye is in focus. I also try to eliminate the weaker of two very similar frames based on head position, catchlight, etc.

Once I've culled my set of photos down in NiewNX I'll look again at each image in Preview on my Mac. This time I'll be trying to narrow down the remaining similar images and color tagging the best ones.

Then its time to give each surviving image a unique name (e.g., White-crowned Sparrow 873.NEF), followed by making backup copies to both CD and an external firewire drive.

Only then am /I ready to start processing the colored tag best images.

If I'm having trouble making selections at any point I'll close the folder and wait a few days to give myself some distance from the field experience.

Excellent Rich, thanks for your "best practices" walkthrough, it's very helpful.

Jeff, after seeing your first post, I was worried that maybe you only got napping puma shots, but I see that definitely was not the case. In fact, I think you got better stuff than I did, even though you were faced with the challenge of shooting up into a tree for most of them.

Two shots stand out to me: 9532 (the surrounding green foliage is an awesome backdrop... not sure if I'd crop vertically or horizontally) and 9550, which is probably the best image that's closest to eye level. For the latter, I would definitely crop a good portion of the bottom (to remove the distracting bright green in the lower left) and the right parts of the image, placing the puma in the right of the frame with the trunks to the left.

Choosing a third is difficult, since these two are a cut above, IMO.

Nice to see mom at the end, btw. Based on these shots, I think the youngster could be the same one I photographed last week.

Max

Might be something to Max's comment; I picked the same two images. :)
The cat has some nice expressions, in some of the other shots, but the strong highlights take too much attention away from the subject.

Richard has some excellent advice too, especially about walking away, for a while, to get rid of some of the emotional ties you have to an image and makes you view it more clinically. (Believe me, this comes from personal experience -- far too much personal experience. lol)

Thanks Max and Stan for looking and for the comments, it's very helpful to hear the kinds of specific things you look for and consider and weigh against each other. I have plenty of connection to "will I like this image on my wall to remind me of my experience" but hardly any with "random person who wasn't even there will enjoy looking at this" so thanks for helping me along that path some.

EDIT - Hmm, Max and Stan, reading that back it may not have been clear that I'm appreciating your input as pros about what makes good photographs that would appeal to "random persons", not that you guys were the random persons... Thanks again.

Jeff - I settled on the same 9532 shot for sure. For the others, I'm not so sure. The lighting and less distracting BG in 9532 are great, but for the blown out areas. That one also has some possibilities for cropping and how the cougar winds up framed in the shot.

I took a quick shot at a close crop to show what I'm thinking that I've posted here. Hope you don't mind. (Let me know if you want it removed.)

I'm not sure if I'd actually crop this much - it depends on how big I was printing it, and I'd probably make a couple of crops and give it a day or so for me to settle on one.

I don't mind at all, David, thanks for the demo and guidance. I'm also taking Rich's and others' advice and letting it all sit for a bit while I spend some time with my other Costa Rica shots, so thanks for giving me some things to work with.