Well this is a big departure for me. I hardly ever make a picture of just the head of an animal. Personally I prefer to see the whole subject. Having seen some excellent tighter crops on this forum recently I thought I would go through the archives and see what I could find.
I have darkened the background a little more than it was in the original and cropped slightly.
I like it and it's certainly a very impressive catch - you must have been pretty low to get that angle so close up. Stare is great.
It's an unusual pose for a tight portrait (although not an unusual pose for a cheetah, obviously) with the head angling in down from the top right. It would be interesting to see what it would look like with a shoulder and even the top of the leg, if the foremost one is forward. A wild thought is did you look at rotating it if you have the space?
I like the detail in the facial fur. Also like the speckled BG mirroring the cheetah's fur. Can't comment from actual experience on the eyes but they appear to be natural with respect to the light angle. Though I think the cheetah head angle is as you captured, I find myself wanting to give this a little CW rotation to level the eyes.
Glad your going for the tight images also Austin !! All have their place and this works well.
Was only wondering about the low ISO The MK3 performs well and not a bad idea having a little extra shutters speed or more dof !!! Looking forward to more head shots !!!