Iridescent gaze

For a long time, I had dreamed of a close encounter with loons. Then, one evening, in a canoe, I came across a pair backlit, with an astonishingly calm closeness. I was already thanking nature for giving me such beauty. But a little further along, trapped in a pond, they came back. With my eyes in the binoculars, I watched them dive. Then I heard one come out of the water, very close, to my right. Then a second. I turned. There they were. While one was hunting, the other looked at me with its iridescent gaze. The encounter was no longer a dream. This time, it was him looking at me. Through the viewfinder of my camera, his gaze was fixed on mine. I fired the shutter. Then nothing.