Do you really want harsh ?

Well, firstly, I would say what ever camera / lens combination you are using is ok.

If you are cropping the pictures, then in most, you are cropping too much.

The 'general' feeling is that if you are going to photograph animals, then you have to include every part, i.e. nose, tail feathers, head, legs etc. etc. there are exceptions though, no.6 could do with a tighter crop to enhance the 'comic ' feel.

No. 1 works best for me, but my opinion may differ dramatically from everyone else's, you have to make up your own mind as to what YOU like.

If it was mine, No 1 has a lot of distractions in the foreground, needs a bit of a crop and a colour lift, this is only my opinion, please tell me your thoughts, I am not pretending to be any sort of expert, just an enthusiast.
I have posted what "I" think is an improvement, but that does not mean this is the 'best' picture, you have to make up your own mind.

Smeggypants, love the work you are doing, you are helping us all.

I don't have a K5, I went the K10 then K7 and I'm waiting for the K3, but anyway, the original images you posted, seem very dark, not questioning the focus, just wondered why they weren't a bit brighter ?

If it was a white card with blank ink, why I am seeing just dark grey and black ?

Is the K5 not exposing correctly ?

I may be missing something here, but all the images you posted seem 'dark' ?

Enlighten me !


John

What filter were you thinking about putting on it ?

I thought the car was one of your extensive collection of props ?

Well, for humor's sake, it made me laugh out loud !!!

It also shows imagination, I wish I'd thought of it

Love it Don

Aperture to straighten, crop, adjust white balance, increase definition, adjust levels, reduce magenta saturation, edge sharpen and a little vignette.
PhotoShop Elements to distort, ( get most of the verticals straight ), crop a bit more, clone out dust spots in the sky, a little unsharp mask, and apply a black border.

Not exactly,

Cheers 'Oggy', your memory is better than mine

p.s. I used to work for a company not a million miles from you in Lancing, Eschmann's Equipment ?

I like the 'fishy' distortion, but sometimes for work purposes, I "correct" the images with,

PTLens

They have a plug-in for LR, Aperture etc., or a stand-alone version.

If I remember correctly, you get to try it fully on about 10 images for free.