When photographing wildlife, or any subject for that matter, it is important to give your subject a little breathing room in the composition but not so much that the subject gets lost in the photo.

Some questions to ask yourself:

• Is there enough room around the subject to frame the photo without cutting off any of the subject?
• Is there enough room to crop the photo for photo printing and composition without cutting off any of the subject?

Although I love this photo of the alpha male of the Canyon Pack in Yellowstone National Park staring straight at me, I was disappointed that when this photo is framed, the left front foot is cut off a little. I photographed this beautiful animal with a 500mm lens - I couldn't zoom out and this is full frame - he was that close! And because he was that close it was best to stay in my vehicle so I couldn't move back. But ideally a 200-400 mm zoom lens would have done this subject much better. There are also ways to edit this photo in Photoshop to help resolve the issue (more about that in another blog post).