I made this image sitting folded up in a traditional dug-out canoe!
Tsiribihina river, Madagascar
Camera Model Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/2000
Av( Aperture Value ) 6.3
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1/3
ISO Speed 500
Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal Length 400.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592, crop is app 80% of original
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Color Temperature(5200K)
AF Mode AI Servo AF
Sharp, with a good wing position and EXP. Neat that the wing tip is touching the water. Standing (or somehow getting a bit higher) would have been better as it would have separated the bird's head from the far shoreline. Laslty, the bird angling away from you is less than ideal.
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I think it's the wingtip in the water that makes this photo. Afterwards you can't do so much about the line in the BG or the fact that the bird is turned just a little bit away. But you could get us, the viewers, more focused on the interesting, I mean the wing in the water, by cropping harder. I tried it on your photo, and I think it will improve it.
I would maybe mirror turn it too, but that's only me preference.