Great Crested Grebe

This image was shot at The Regent's Park, London. The weather was dark and gloomy when I captured this picture but bright and sunny 5 minutes after (of course, the bird had left by then). I couldn't go down lower because the concrete banks of the pond didn't really facilitate eye-level shooting and the opposite bank wouldn't have been a good BG anyway.

Camera - Nikon D850
Focal Length - 700mm
Aperture - f/8
Shutter Speed - 1/400s
ISO - 2500
Handheld
Manual, Auto ISO
Crop - 75% of full-frame

All comments and constructive criticism are appreciated! :bg3:

A good shot of this bird, POV problems noted. Looking right at you but body not quite parallel to the focal plane.

Nice frame of this grebe. Stands out against the drak water very well. Touch more room behind would have been nice.

Very nice Aditya.
I like your low POV. Exposure perfect.
I am happy with the way you cropped this. I always like to have the entire concentric circles of the wake included, as you have done.
Exposure is spot on and perfect HA.
The best part for me are the water drops on the crest. I also like the partial view of the foot.
The water looks a bit odd just above the back- I am pretty sure it is a normal irregularity in the water but if something was cloned from that area I would tidy it up.
Gail

Head is sharp and well exposed, the rear end is a little soft, I would assume this is DOF as opposed to shutter speed, the grebe stands out nicely from the murky water. The angle as you imply, may not be regarded as optimal, having said that it doesn't look bad at all, better like this - as you indicated, than have a distracting background.
(When posting don't forget to include your f value shutter speed, ISO, lens, camera, hand held/tripod PSCC etc - it helps people make more constructive critique for your image:S3:)

Thanks a lot for the feedback everyone!

Gail - The water is natural and no cloning was done in that area. I, too, found that area slightly odd but I decided to leave it as is.

Jon - I included the EXIF data in the OP and I checked on both my laptop and my phone and it's visible. If you're still unable to see it, please let me know and I'll try to fix it :S3:

Nice subject... I would take off the tc...the 500 pf is a really cool light lens ALONE...

Dan - Thanks for your comment. I find the 500 PF + TC combo very good for static or slow-moving subjects. For this shot, if I had used the bare lens, the final result would've been a big crop. For what its worth, my experience with the TC has been largely positive, with AF and the occasional flare issues being the main drawbacks. Image quality is top-notch and any differences between the bare lens and the lens/TC combo are imperceptible in field use IMO. I'd rather use the TC than just use the bare lens and crop in post.

Hi Adi, lovely image. Wonderful colors and red eye. The background compliments the bird well. I know many prefer a very low POV but I like this view, normal to how a person not a photographer would look at the bird. Thank you for sharing.

EXIF is visible in Florida :) I love everything about this one. I would think that with the sun out it would not have been so pleasing ...

with love, artie