Northern Harrier

[Dave Leroy]

This fellow was a bit farther away than ideal, but I liked the cattails. Cropped on right and top and a bit off left. 50D, 500mm f/4 at f/4, 1/750, ISO 400. Dave

[Stu Bowie]

I like the hovering pose Dave, especially with the fully fanned tail. The Harrier is nice and sharp, and well placed in the frame. Im undecided whether you should take a bit off the bottom or not. Still, well captured.

[Greg Basco]

Dave, I think this is a nice image. I really like the inclusion of the cattails in the foreground. I like the placement of the bird in the frame, but I'm not sure about the 4:5 crop. Did you have other options?

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great pose and I think the tail is actually very nice. l like the image and the habitat in the front adds a lot. Very nice.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Love the pose and fanned tail Dave! Marvelous work and the cattails make beautiful additions to the scene. Looks good to me. :) Not sure what the faint OOF band is about halfway across the image.

[agulbransen]

I like this one too and agree that including the cat tails adds a lot to the image. After all, a Marsh Hawk should be seen hovering over a marsh! I spent a lot of time trying to capture harriers at Bosque last week and didn't get anything nearly this nice!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Dave. I like the pose and the sharpness of the bird. I agree that the cattails add a lot to the image. While I like the comp, as presented, I wonder if the image might be even stronger with a little more of the cattails added on the left. Well done.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the idea, intense look and fanned tail. Adding to the other comments, I might darken the BG using midtones and could see this as a vertical crop, too.

[Dave Leroy]

Thank you very much for the comments.

The band in bg is actually the shoreline on far side of river. I suppose I might have darkened that layer for a bit clearer effect.
I had not thought of a vertical crop but did look at tighter on bottom. It felt to me like the cattails were floating so end of that idea.
I cropped very little off left to remove a cattail projecting out of frame. I would have preferred more room there and then not needed such a tight crop. Always next time to get a bit closer.
Dave

[Dave Barnes]

I like the idea Dave. I agree that the Bg could be a bit darker.
On the comp, I would have croped just a tad off the top and bottom (without geeting the bird to close to the top)to provide a more pano effect. I this this may enhance the feel?

Maby something like this?

[Kiran Poonacha]

the repost sure adds, well the moment captured, the vegitation adds very well to this, congrats..

[Richard Peters]

This is a stunning image, really like the framing, the pose of the bird and the cattails make it stand out adding something extra special.

[Dave Leroy]

Now that I have seen the repost and back off viewing on my monitor to 75% the original does seem a bit blocky. Thanks Dave for taking the time and to others for mentioning this too. Dave