Will I think I prefer the whole bird which looks very good, water droplets add to the image as does the colour of the water itself, your doing some really nice stuff with these birds.
Hi Will, getting out there is really paying off, well done and as keith mentioned, the water droplets are a nice touch. If you have it, then I might be tempted in moving the whole crop down a fraction, with less above and more below, think it might balance out better????
I much prefer this full body view too. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of head-and-shoulder portraits and create them whenever the chance presents itself. I just find that this image was strong enough on its own that it did not need to be cropped so much as what we see on that previous thread of it. It also explains the noise we could see too.
As for this version, I find the crop well balanced, although a bit more below would indeed work well too. Good look-back pose, nice yellow water. Neat sprinkling of water drops.
Hi Will, lovely swimmimg pose with just the right angle. I do like the light in this, and again, lovely greens to the head, with the visible droplets. Nice bow wave, and colour to the water. Well captured.