John,
I like the composition. The sand on its nose makes it interesting. The bright patch near its head bothers me a bit. Overall, I like it.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
A beautiful portrait, John. Very sharp, nice even light, and a good comp. A perfect head angle, IMO, as it is looking intently at something in its envirnoment, but not directly at you. I agree about the sand. I would suggest toning down or removing the OOF dark areas in the background as they tend to draw my eye.
John, I like how you framed the guy with the torso at the LR corner and the neck and head at a diagonal. Diagonals are powerful compositionally. Nice work.
Nice looking animal with some good detail. Colors of this image look good together. Light/dark spots in the BG don't bother me too much but if you address one may as well take care of them all.