This pic was taken a long time ago(1989) in northern Argentina in ranch country. It was the FIRST flash fill I had used outside the yard practice. I had no idea what I was doing but worked fairly well . I was using Nikon equipment with the new Nikon auto flash and set for minus 1 2/3 s( I read that somewhere and looked pretty good on backyard birds). I was sitting( someone said always get down to the level of the subject) in water of pond with a herd? of Capybara shooting at sunset. Sunset was anemic but still had some color.
Of course weakness is loss of out line of animals back at the frame edge. No instant feedback to let me know to do a do over.
I thought photographers would be interested to see the old days ,but the beginning of auto flash in wildlife photography.
A very good idea and flash wise pretty well executed from what I can tell. The headturn and low angle are very good. I would try to selectively darken and saturate the BG, if it fits your personal ethics I would also add some canvas on the right and clone in the cut off piece of capibara.
You are right about the rotation. It was so minimal I never noticed it before. If I print it I would work on background and also rotate it.
Good to get perspective from other people since I am pretty much isolated in the "boondocks".