Hi Jon, love the soft light in this, and what brilliant IQ too. With the soft light, you have also managed to expose the whites and darks so well. At least in your part of the world, you dont have our African harsh light. You have captured a great angled pose, and I do like those fine droplets on his head. Ive enjoyed their detail and colours around their heads, and thats a killer smooth BG. Knowing you, you dont have any more space below??? - I would liked to have seen more there.
Hi Jon, for once our climate did the subject justice and the droplets are a nice added bonus. Agree with Stu, a bit more below please, I also wonder if you had more DoF if that would have helped, perhaps on the legs???? Personally I still prefer the 500 in this instance, mainly down to the sharpness, as Loi found with his owl in flight, but also that nice compressed background you achieve too.
Wow, who'd have though British light could work so well ?!
Cracking details throughout the tonal range, the only thing I might consider is a slight lightening of the eye for a bit more 'pop' but I fully understand if you think that may make things look a little false. Simple yet effective shot