Looking over my shoulder

[RigoDesigns]

This was a spur of the moment shot of our Siamese (Macy). Whenever she lays in the dining room soaking up the sun, she looks so happy, so I decided to get a quick shot of her the other day. She's a seal-point Siamese so she has very dark features on the front part of her nose, ears, as well as all 4 paws and tail. It was challenging to get a decent exposure that would capture the detail of her face, but wouldn't wash out the light part of her shoulder and chest where the sun caught her.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I might have better exposed the image? I'm lucky enough to have windows on two sides of her here so that helped a little, but any additional ideas? Does the potted plant in the background add to or take away from the image?

I have another image of her from the set, as well as our other cat Zorro for anyone interested... Macy and Zorro - a set on Flickr

Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated, and acted upon... she loves this area of the house, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity to try your suggestions.

Taken with my Nikon D90
Exposure: 1/180 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
ISO: 250

[windrider86]

I love the way her eyes are it up!
The potted plant doesnt bother me but what I find distracting is the window sill and I'm guessing curtains. . You could crop it down to remove the window and then clone out the curtains

[RigoDesigns]

I wasn't sure if cropping out the sill would make the image too narrow and have Macy take up too much of the image.... I'm not sure what curtains you're talking about.... the corner of the window is what you start seeing.... (We have massive 6' windows that come down past your knees).

She's an unusual little girl... she's sandy-brown to solid black color on her coat, but her eyes are the clearest sky-blue I've ever seen.

[windrider86]

Nope, it wont make it too narrow at all. In fact right now its far too wide. Use the rule of thirds and you'll see!
Maybe its actually the plant i am seeing. See the twig thing sticking out of the top of her head? Thats what I was talking about

[RigoDesigns]

Ah, those are the stems of a couple of miniature palm trees.... I wish I had a better angle...