Help with this Cat

Okay, this is my first day with this camera. So I go down to my local river front and found a willing subject. This is also my first pic post here, I am just learning the digital SLR so, the whites look a bit blown out and I would like any ohter suggestions on improving this shot. This fat stray cat kind of made my night so I would like to remember her. C&C welcome, feel free to edit as needed.

Thanks

Well it appears to be out of focus. I cannot find a point in focus. If you are using AF, you should be choosing the AF point - don't let the camera choose it. And what was the EXIF data? That might explain the out of focus.

1/60sec. f/4 ISO 400, I was letting the camera do the work, ie auto mode since I am trying to get a feel for the thing. It was a grab shot, this cat just started walking down the wall right at me, then poof stoped to smell the flower. Oh well.

You said to edit as needed, so I did, basicly a color/contrast rebalance and some USM along with a +40 color saturation (except for the brickwork), could do better with the full resolution pic though.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

darn, that is not a very big pic (darn photobucket!) lets try this:

HOSTED PHOTO
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Nice touch up JS....

Nice subject Melissa

mellisa you should try to think how much dof you need for the shots you are taking the cat f8 would have been a better choice the auto mode is not a good idea p-mode gives you a chance to see the f/stop and speed better so you can see if you can hand hold for the f/stop you pick as said by hellashot use omly one focus point the picture was a well seen effort so keep it up

I like the composition. (If the aspect ratio is right, that cat must be part Maine Coon!)

Here's your pic with a couple of PS tweaks - adjust levels using the Alt key and dropper
buttons to set the black and white points, plus a little sharpening.

Agree with kingsown on more DOF with maybe F/8 for this shot.

Thanks so much guys. Yeah she is a big cat. Part of the problem was the lens I was using, my 85 prime, so it was a wide shot that I cropped to what you see. Unfortunately it has been very dry down here and most of the flowers are dieing off, that is another reason for the crop, I hate dead flowers in a picture.