Lair

This morning I found this immature female water monitor basking in the early sunlight. She did come out of her nest a bit further, but I preferred this one where she looks a bit like a dragon crouching in a lair.
Any C&C much appreciated!

I love it - what a fascinating animal! You're very lucky to live in such a gorgeous place with such wonderful wildlife!

xx

Wow! All I have found this morning is a snail!
Great photo, but I think if I am C&c ing it I think I would have cropped it differently. I personally would want the head more towards the bottom left corner then a little more of whats to the right. Feel free to ignore me though as I am a complete beginner!!!
Welcome to YoP by the way!

I like it too! I would sharpen it a little, as you almost always need to do that when you resize for the web

Wow lucky you, all I get locally is my dogs, a few flies, bees, slugs and snails!

Great shot.

Amazing, lucky you! I think it's a great shot

little me - I don't think you're ever too much a beginner to critique - and you could be right about the crop - though personally I liek it having the space - though maybe more space at the right and less underneath may help (which could be what you meant - as I'm sure I've mentioned countless times - I have been drinking, and shouldn't be allowed near the interwebs!)

xx

Great to see that when you are out, but guess you have to take the rough with the smooth, sure there are a load of dangerous and dodgy things to leap out at you too!

Nice picture, think I'd be tempted to try and PP a little to sharpen and bring up 'the dragon' from the background although the reality I'd guess is they deliberately blend in.

Little me, it's nice to get a fresh perspective on our pics so you C&C away, but I'd guess you have some art background or at least seem to have a nice arty way of thinking.

Many thanks everyone for the feedback, it is very helpful!
(Little me, I think we are both in the same boat, so please give me any ideas you may have!)
I was fairly close and there is basically no cropping done here, so not much to play around with to correct the composition. But I did take a landscape version of the same pic and I was not sure which one to go with. I am not sure of the protocol here, is it OK to put up the other version on this thread to see how people feel about it?
Azz and Blackcloud - on the sharpening, I am still struggling with resizing things for the web properly. Is it better to sharpen the image, then reduce it, or to sharpen the reduced image? It seems like I really need to oversharpen the image to keep the sharpness?
My PP skills are dodgy at best, but it will give it a bash and see if I can bring her out of the background more - good practice!

You should sharpen after the resize, last thing some people do on an image. It can be difficult to get right, and you may sharpen differently depending on web, screen or printing. There are quite a few tutorials on the web and quite often features in photographic magazines either in print or on a cover disc.