The rock does look large...I'm sure you kept it that way to include the orange lichen. You can still crop at bottom and leave only the highest part of the lichen showing in LRC. Excellent exposure. and I l ove the beautiful blue BG. Lightening the iris is an option, just make sure to keep the pupil black if you do lighten the eye.
Great to see you here! Lovely shot with a nice perch and pose, the soft light really helps with the blacks and whites here and the light blue BG is great! I would leave the perch as is because of the nice lichens and would maybe increase the room on top just a tiny bit to see what that looks like (also that would give publishers some room to print their text :D)
It was really nice to have met you in Ireland, and hope to see you here/or somewhere else more often!