Fallen Tree Winter Fantasy - Taking Shelter for the Rabbits (CLOSED) (CLOSED)

A hawk flies overhead keeping a watchful eye on a family of rabbits  that have taken shelter in an old dead tree fallen on its side near the small lake.  Winter has come early this year, and food is scarce.  "We'll stay in here until the coast is clear" the father rabbit said to his family.  "Winter is coming quickly and we can't afford to risk losing our new home", he said.  The babies huddled-up to their parents for warmth and protection.

As I mentioned, I have an affinity towards rabbits so please excuse that.  Anyway, I was in the process of reading "The Illusion of Life" when there was a piece on Thumper from Bambi.  It mentioned about how they were huddled together avoiding a storm and that was it!  It fired up my imagination and that is what I came up with.  This can be seen in the other version of this picture I have here.  The differences come from the atmosphere and lighting mainly.  I wanted to experiment.  There's another version where a bolt of lightning lights the inside of the tree and the rabbits.  Anyway, the rabbits are coated in fur.  Also, the ears took a lot of work because I wanted to reproduce the effect of transparency.  Some rabbits ears are so thin that the light travels through them lighting up all the veins.  this is how they keep cool with them working like little radiators to discharge the heat from the rabbits body.  That made it necessary to learn about SSS and the way that light interacts with skin.  There is actually a lot of details in the image that can easily be missed.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking at the scene. 

Very cool. And you're right... 
Sometimes the small details make a huge difference in the final outcome. 
Well done! Thanks for participating in the contest.