Preening TIme

[Robert Holguin]

Hello everyone. I took this while on our family vacation this past summer. I really liked the preening pose, but not sure if the comp works.
It's pretty much FF all around. I have room on top and below, but not on the sides.
C&C welcomed and encouraged.
I darkend the background and bumped up the exposure on the pelican only.
Nikon 300s l Nikon 300F4 w/1.4 tc l ISO 500 l 1/640 l F10 l Multi Segment l Manual l HH.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Robert,

I like the pose that you captured, and I think that an even tighter crop might be more beneficial. Here is a crop that I think works well. It's a 16:9.

Miguel

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Robert, you certainly captured good DOF here, and I really like the detail on the bill, head and neck. I can see what Miguel is after, but on the LHS, I would crop up to the edge of the neck. A little more space top and bottom wont harm.

[dankearl]

I like Miguel's crop and I would work on that.
A bit of saturation would make it pop and it is a very nice intimate look.

[Marina Scarr]

I like what you were going for here, and the RP works better by tightening it up with better focus on the preen and the feather designs.