Great crested grebe

Tripod mongoose head
Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/400
Av( Aperture Value ) 7.1
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation -2/3
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Focal Length 700.0mm
Image Quality RAW
White Balance Mode Daylight
AF Mode AI Servo AF
AF area select mode Spot AF

Slight brushing of the top background to smooth out, no eye doctoring. I have tried this with a number of different cropping versions going in tighter was one but I would like your thoughts on this version.
All C & c welcome.
All C&C welcome
Picture Style Standard
Color Space Adobe RGB

Hi Jon, well timed for the take off, and I like the motion blur effect you have created with your slow ss. I think your pano crop works well. I would maybe just lighten the head and neck of the grebe.:w3

Nice motion capture and great idea with the pano. Wish the head and eye were sharper.

A species I have only encountered once, and sadly have not seen them doing anything except swimming around lazily from a distance.

A little sharper on the head would be nice, but a darn hard thing to achieve to get perfect with such fast movement, nice impression of action and speed with the blurred wings

I have cropped a little tighter and brightened the neck - any better? I think the head is pretty sharp?

Hi Jon, yes, your repost does work better.

I prefer the more pano look of the first with perhaps a bit more on left side and less on right. All very subjective of course. The head is certainly in focus but I am not sure if it is quite sharp enough and will be interesting to see what others think. Excellent idea and lovely bg.

nice Jon, action is cool but your shutter speed was too low to get the head sharp. you need to raise the ISO at least 3 stops here to get a sharp shot

I find the brightening of the image by Johnathon is good, but I do prefer the wider aspect image in the original with space for the subject to move into....so to speak.

Thanks very much everyone your comments are most appreciated.

ery nice image Jon,like first post better.well done.