Black Skimmer

This is excellent, Buck.
One of the best reflection I have ever seen. It's almost surreal in its perfection, , and this sensation is accentuated by the sharp cut of the two background colors. I think in this case the centered comp is a good choice.
Congrats.
Giorgio

Nice one. Almost a perfect reflection.

Buck,

Blacks on the body are a little dark (they're good on the reflection) and it's a shame the shoreline intersects the head (may have been needed to get that awesome reflection) but those are pretty minor. Well done

Awesome reflection, couldn't ask floor smoother water!

Your right, the reflection is superb!

Super crisp shot - bird and reflection. The blacks do seem a little dark, but that's from my lousy work monitor so I'm sure its better than what I'm seeing. In the large version I can see the catchlight in his eye, so that's a nice bonus. Great colors and just a striking image.

Great shot, i'm a sucker for reflections and the shot sure looks good to my old eyes.

Very nice reflection, Buck. I am seeing plenty of detail in the blacks on my monitor. I think I would be tempted to move the bird a bit lower and left in the frame if you have room.

Just had to update, now that I'm on my home monitor. The blacks looks great. Wonderful shot.

I agree the reflection makes this one Buck. I like the centered comp for it too.

Buck,

I love a good reflection and you have presented a very lovely one here of this skimmer. Glad the bird stood still long enough to get this reflection. I don't mind at all that the shoreline intersects with the head and body of the bird. I think the darks are a bit too dark in the body of the bird and thus doesn't show much detail, the reflection seems lighter. If you added contrast to the bird I would reduce the contrast (and possibly saturation) to see if you can pull out more visible details in the darks.

I like the comp, the lovely blue water and that you got a catchlight in the eye.

Thank you for your critiques everyone.
With regard to the black: I think this may partly be a 'different strokes for different monitors' issue. I can see detail in the black with the exception of the cap on the bird's head. I had applied curves to the whole image, but it was fairly subtle. Here is the skimmer with the curves layer turned off.

I like reflections too.--this one is great. I would try and bring up the "real" bird a bit, so that his eye is more apparent.