American White Pelican Glides--How Best to Crop?

Canon 1D Mark IV
500mm +1.4 TC
Handheld

1/1250 sec
f/5.6
ISO 800

Taken in Fort Myers, FL in early January off a dock near the beaches. I like how this American White Pelican almost looks like a swan as he glides along. I wanted to have the trail in the picture, so thought more room behind rather than in front. I thought about going with more of a pano but then that cuts out the bit of green above and below which I thought added interest and framing. Would love to know what others think. Will include the original so people can see what there is to work with.
Thanks so much in advance for the feedback.

And here is the original frame.

This is my take
Gail

I had just worked up a pano crop too, but I put my pelican a little more to the right in the frame than Gail. I think if you play with your crop options a little bit but with pano in mind, you'll find something quite appealing.

This is a lovely, moody image and I love Melissa's crop choice, with the full refelction. You want to leave room for the bird to move into, but with a beautuiful wake, you want to include it, too. We can get too hung up on things like rule of thirds and leaving room to move into. There can be other factors.

Great capture! Both Gail's and Melissa's cropping are pretty good. May be crop somewhere between the two cropping to leave out the stuff at the bottom of the frame of the original post?

I like your orig Melissa, as said above we can sometimes get hung up on rules- sometimes it makes a change to break them,.- it has wotrked for you with this image. I would just clean up of a few small specks on the water.

I'm with Raymond. Keep the first one you posted, but just crop off from the bottom.

Doug

Ok, here's another repost with some cropped off the bottom. Thanks so much for all the feedback.

The repost is great. I like how you brightened up the bird's white feathers too. The image suggests a very peaceful mood. Lovely image. Very well done. I think another choice would be to crop about a fourth from the left (from the original post), still leaving a good part of the trail, and also crop the OOF water at the bottom to just below the brightest part of the reflection, leaving the pelican at the thirds position at lower left. Just a thought. Attached an example. I did slightly boost highlights and clarity only in addition to the crop suggestion.

The last one is perfect IMO. Shows the Pelican nicely and still maintains the mood of this beautiful scene. The expanded reflection adds to the shot allot. Nice artistic offering!

I would go with your repost in pane nine and clean up the water and darken it a tad, but not as much as Gail's.

I also like the repost in pane nine the best. Uncoventional framing but interestingly works it works extremely well here. Great composition, Melissa.

Melissa:

Pane 9 for me as well. I liked the hint of green above, but the reflection and green below was weak enough, so just get rid of it (as your repost does).

The long wake gives the sense of cruising along, aided by the pano crop

Cheers

Randy

Beautiful! I do like the center placement in pane 2 (WITH the stuff at the bottom)... has a "feel" to it.... Pane 9 is a winner...with the bird peering "back", there is less of a need for "nose room".... Superb!

Great image, Melissa! I like the OP best! The stuff at the bottom grounds the image for me. The trailing wake is very nice and featured in the OP. And the HA, looking back into the frame works well, IMO. Great!