Star gazing juvi common loon

This juvi loon was imaged two days ago, same bird as in the take off shot that I posted. He was doing his preening routine, but gave me this unusual head position, with his eyes open. They usually close their eyes while preening, so I was happy to capture this.

Predawn, so quite cool light.

D4 600vr f.5 1/1250s ISO 1000. Camera mounted on a pedestal to support it in my boat.

Slight crop for comp. Darkened the pupil a bit, as it was a bit hazy from the horizon reflection.

Advice and comments always appreciated. Esp. any thoughts on composition with this head angle.

Cheers

Randy

When you have so many excellent shots of a certain subject it becomes hard to get something new, so I really enjoyed viewing this one. Lovely light has given you the opportunity to pull out all the details and the pose is superb

Mike

Hi Randy,
What a poser, what an image, so unique. I like the soft colors with a few water drops, wake bow and reflection. Looks a bit noisy may need additional NR, (noise on beak really caught my eye, throat, also brown reflection). I like how the water dissolves, super image, TFS

Hello Randy,
What an amazing pose!
With the bird looking up I wonder if you could crop the bottom slightly and give slightly more sky above for the bird to look into.

Love that pose and whites on breast are perfectly exposed.Slight head angler towards us is perfect.
I am on my laptop so do not see any noise.
I like your crop but can also see a version as Robert suggested.
Nice to see a different pose from a loon,
gail

Thanks everyone:

I did induce some noise on the bill by trying to compensate for it being a bit out of dof, by increasing the sharpening. Crudely done on my part, will revisit it.

I agree that a version with more room above could work well. I tried several variations before settling on this one.

Cheers

Randy

Sweet. I love the fine points in this image -- the bow wave, and the two (delicate) feathers near the back of the head. They might be the tertials from the far side of the bird, one out of place.

with love, artie

Very nice. Detail comes out great in the soft light. Nice low angle and killer background.