nice shot but it is a bit too big to be concidered a closeup, let alone a macro. The image is nice, I like the way the muddy water brings out the texture in the flat of the face and the dof is sweet, great edge to edge crispness, but it just dosent meet the challenge IMHO.
Good photo of one ugly critter! Great focus. Nicely captured textures. It even has an expression I can resonate with. It meets the technical definition of the challenge (close up) and is a lot closer to the beast than I would ever want to be! I fear it will fare poorly in the voting because it won't "feel" like a macro to most folks, however.
I want to say, "How cute" but I think that guy could rip my head off! I had shop teacher with hair in his ears like that. Ha ha...nice photo, great details, too bad the ear got clipped out of frame. I'd love to see what others you got of this guy.
last time i went to the zoo i would throw dimes at them and see if i could get one to land on its face without sliding into the water, after 6 dollars and an angry hippo, the zoo used force to evict me from the park