Eyes of a Child

[Shreyas Mantri]

"Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child." ~ Ron Wild

A close encounter with a "heap" of cubs sitting/playing not too far from the roadside, well camouflaged.
This cub however was sitting at the top of this formation and gave me a very nice glance - one to be cherished forever!
Got a few shots out of this sighting, and the framing and PP on this one is focused mainly around the depth of the cub's deep brown eyes.

Canon 7D, 300mm II, f/3.2, EC +1/3, @ 1/1600, ISO 160, shot around noon.
Comments always appreciated!

[Danny Laredo]

Really like the gaze in his eyes. Wonderful PP work.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Shreyas, I like the look back and agree, the focus is all on the eyes, but personally I would like to see the subject a little smaller in frame so the paws are not clipped.

Not knowing to what extent you wish to portray the image, I do feel the overall depth is lacking in tonality, also the yellow is a wee bit strong, but again, personal taste. I would go back into NIK and have a play with the sliders, if not, use what you have and adjust in PS, the starting point for me was in Levels as things were falling short either side of the axis. There are other things you can do to bring more 'tonality', but lets see what others have to say so i'm not RP.

Also, flick back about a year or so ago on the Wildlife pages when Chas started to portray some images using this technique, it might help with some ideas or expand on what I am suggesting. Others followed in his footstep, but missed the plot. :w3

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Shreyas - The eyes are captivating but the comp isn't working for me. I feel like it needs more room on the lhs and that the truncated feet and tail really hurt the image. I wonder if going in tighter might help. Something like this? You also might want to post this in OOTB.

TFS,
Rachel

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I am with Rachel here with her crop idea since the paws were clipped. It also draws more attention to that sweet face. I like the PP

[John Ippolito]

Rachel's crop makes the image more appealing to me in composition and keeping the eye in the frame.

[Shreyas Mantri]

Thank you all for the comments!
Rachel, I did try a couple of options for cropping, just along the lines that you mention here. I finally opted for vignetting it and put the tonality to personal taste. But it sure is helpful from everyone's review what kind of a frame would work best.

Shreyas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Interesting take here, Shreyas.
I agree with Rachel's crop suggestion and agree with Steve the yellow toning is a tad strong for me. The eyes do have nice depth.