Bird of Prey

[Loi Nguyen]

I have been trying to photograph the Northern Harrier for a couple of years now. While I have had many excellent opportunities, somehow I managed to blow it one way or another. Today is my lucky day. After a fruitless search for anything at all to shoot in the most gorgeous light, I was about to give up when this Northern Harrier silently glided past my peripheral vision and landed on the ground next to an American Coot that it had killed. I maneuvered the car into a respective shooting distance and took gazillion of pictures. The bird was unfazed and kept shredding the Coot into pieces. So I carefully slid into the back of my SUV, opened a rear door, and slipped out. The bird ignored me. So I scooted my butt inching forward bit by bit, and managed to cover half the distance between the car and the bird. I supposed I could have gone closer to get a full frame image, but I didn't want to scare the bird away from its dinner. Image is about 50% crop of FF.

1DX2
500f4 II + 2X III @ 1000mm
1/3200
f8.0
ISO-1600
HH while sitting on the ground.

Thanks to David Salem for showing one of his stomping ground in SoCal.

Hope you like it.

Thank you.

Loi

[Julie Rathbone]

It's a great shot, super sharp, nice bokeh, good composition and lighting....all the ingredients here!


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[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Loi, the prey (coot) really takes it to the top. I know the feeling when you see such scene, you did the best, light was a bit harsh already but not much you could do. I find the OOF grass to the left and the right of the harrier a bit distracting and would clone them out.

TFS

[Isaac Grant]

Nice shot and love the story behind it. Its the kind of thing that anyone who shoots birds can more than relate to. Agree 100% with Arash. Great details and prey is killer :w3. Would have been better if sun was a little lower in the sky but still a great image of a harrier.

[Glenn Conlan]

Loi, Nice to see you got a great session with the Gray Ghost, he gave Dave and I hundreds of frames. Happy New Year. I agree with Arash's advice on the clean up. Happy New Year

[gail bisson]

I am soooo..... jealous.
You worked hard for the shot and deserve this nice frame.
I would soften/clone out the grass to the left of harrier.
Otherwise no nits from me!
Gail

[David Salem]

I know you were texting me while I was in Hawaii so it's great to see that you got the Ghost with a meal. Nice details and exposure but to bad it was so late in the day. Congrats. See you soon