*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*
An appealing animal study that meets the challenge well.
I feel for the frustrations it sounds you experienced during this challenge but I think it was worth the effort you have caught the cat's expression well here, it does evoke a sense of curiosity. It is so near being an excellent portrait that would undoubtedly have scored much higher.
You were obviously shooting in a low light situation which meant you have to raise the ISO and shoot at maximum aperture and its this that has left room for improvement which you readily acknowledge yourself in your comments. It would have been good if we could have had both eyes in sharp focus and a higher shutter speed to make the image sharper overall but I think you have done the best you can in difficult circumstances, so well done. Its all very well to talk about reflectors or artificial lighting to raise the illumination levels but capturing the moment as you have here doesn't always allow for it.
Thank you for an interesting submission, Sid |