Eh...What's up Doc?

As a young child I remember the drive out to Jones Beach quite vividly.  As we drove along the Wantagh Parkway we would start to see wild rabbits in the grass on the side of the road.  Fast forward to today as an adult living on Long Island, I guess the rabbits have multiplied and moved inland.  On my evening walks (when I walk; I really need to do this more!), I have had many rabbit sightings and like to see how many I can count during one walk.  I think 5 was my all time high for one walk.  The first time I went walking with my real camera instead of my phone camera, I walked for over an hour without seeing one bunny!  Then, as I made the turn for home, I saw him.  I kept some distance and let my zoom lens do the work.  When the bunny heard the shutter sound, he looked right toward the sound and I got a shot of him looking right at me.  

I thought I had a really nice shot here, but I felt that cropping the shot to focus on his face would make it an even better shot.  He's a real looker; beautiful eyes!

What do you think?  Which shot do you prefer and why?  You can see that cropping an image can really change your perception of the subject matter.  Another noteworthy attribute to this photo is that the bunny is in focus while the background is not in focus.  This is an example of 'selective focus.'  This technique uses a shallow depth of field to bring the subject in the foreground in focus while giving a softer, blurred background.  This picture was taken with a Canon SX 40HS.