Digital Camera Magazine - Shenandoah Fox

I got Featured by Digital Camera Magazine for my shot of this Fox in Shenandoah National Park

The fox was searching around the bushes and the trees and eyed me up looking straight down my lens. The main thing I like about the photo is the details. but the eyes are really what makes this image for me.

I like that the eyes have some nice catch lights showing in them, and stare looks straight through the glass.

The lighting of the sunset, making half of the face in shadow and half being in light I think gives great character and personality to the fox.
I had been watching the fox for a while, it was gaining more confidence as it was working its way around the trees and bushes in quite a busy area, it was certainly showcasing its scavenging skills. 

With the photo I wanted to capture a moment of its confident personality breaking through from its shyness, and highlight some of its amazing details.  This is why I cropped the majority of the background and made the real subject the eyes.

Positioning for the light was the major issue for this, i wanted to make sure the fix had some catch lights in its eyes. The fox was moving around at a fair pace, so the shutter speed needed to be kept fairly high, but with the sun setting and being in and out of the shadows of the bushes and trees this was difficult.

I use Manual settings, with Auto ISO Limited, the light had gone too far to come anywhere close to that limit!

Link to Feature - Here