Generally speaking, we want to fill the frame with the animal. But doing that can be boring and can miss telling the story. We should not always just fill the frame. We should always ask a few questions:

• Is there action begging to be captured?

• Is the animal acting out some animal behavior that should be shown?

• Is the surrounding landscape interesting?

• Does the light scream for attention?

This image would just not have worked tightly cropped. We want to look to where the animal is looking. The light draws us into the image. The light would have drawn us out of the image had this been cropped tightly.

The larger view shows the animal working to get a meal. It is shown with its natural surroundings. Once again the light works with this composition whereas a tight crop would have had the brighter lit sand on the edge of the image. Don't be afraid to step back and show a larger view. These images are often just as interesting or more so than tightly cropped wildlife images. There is a time for tightly shot images and a time for wider framed images. Before you shoot, try to ask some questions to help you decide whether to zoom in tightly or not.