The Asian Small-clawed Otter is one of my favourite photo subjects at wildlife parks.
This was one my first images using a digital SLR a Pentax K10D back in mid December 2006. 1/750 sec @ F5.6 70mm focal length.
Taken around 4 PM .
Ian McHenry
I like the inquisitive pose. Dark subjects on sun are very hard. You did decent job except for the very edge of the lip being blown a little.
Flash would help alot in this situation.
I would definately remove the OOF rail edge in the lower left.
Robert
I like the pose as well and you did well with the high contrast. Robert is correct that fill-flash can help.
Images like this with the highlights in the water are just plane hard to get right. The strong presence of the otter - to a great extent - overpowers the distracting highlights. I would try reducing the density of the highlights.
Thank you two Roberts and Nicola.
Well I've taken a big step for me and used the Clone stamp and Spot healing brush in Photoshop Elements 5 for the first time !!!
Also slightly darkened highlights.
Thanks also to Artie for making his Digital Basics so reasonable.
Unfortunately no Patch Tool with PSE 5 but Clone & Spot Healing seem to do the same job.
Ian McHenry
Your repost looks much better. An unusual angle that I normally don't care for but it seems to work here... Maybe a bit more room at the top of the frame would have helped....