Spot lit cormy

[Todd Frost]

Cormorant hit with an afternoon shaft of light at local pond last winter. Liked the mood of this one.
D300, 400 2.8 w/2x tc, 1/800, f5.6, iso400, man exp. Left the floating feathers but could easily be removed.
Thanks for looking, comments and critiques appreciated.
Todd

[Steve Canuel]

I like the mood of this one too Todd. Feathers in the water are okay with me, they add sparkle. I'd tone down or remove the shaft of light above the head though. That, along with the lit up neck and brighter reflection makes me split the frame.

[Arthur Morris]

I like this one. I accidentally looked at it with my screen tilted well away and it looked even more dramatic. Be back in a sec....

[Arthur Morris]

Here is a different interpretation based on my error above :)

I think that it is much more powerful. I left the bird's face and neck as is, darkened the rest to black, and patch tooled out the two feathers (though I would be fine leaving them in).

ps: Fine work with the original capture.

[Stu Bowie]

Very dramatic Todd, and well done on getting the light on the head. If this were mine, I would have removed the two feathers, as the rest of the water is clean. Artie's repost is very arty.