The dive

[arash_hazeghi]

Female Northern Harrier, full dive position. Notice he she uses her fanned tail to bank and reduce speed. I was very lucky with this photo, it was late evening, suddenly there was a gap between thick clouds and very strong god rays created this dramatic effect.

http://www.stanford.edu/~ahazeghi/Photos/birds/killer%20harrier%20bpn.jpg

Tech is Canon 5D MKII + 500 f/4 IS + 1.4X TC f/5.6 1/2500 sec ISO 800. SW: Canon DPP 3.7 Digital Processing: crop and sharpen (the sharpness of 5d mkii files is really amazing).

Hope you like it.

[DanielTMiller]

The harrier stands out beautifully against the dark clouds, tack sharp too, brilliant shot.

[colincarter]

superb, great composiion, angle and the light is awesome

[Ofer Levy]

STUNNING !!! Top shot!

[Daniel Pettersson]

Outstanding capture in great light towards the dark BG. Top notch!

[Duane Noblick]

The light adds a lot of drama to this image. Excellent banking pose and I love the fanned out tail.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great lighting and position you captured here. Great image!

[Luis Villablanca]

Wow, the light, detail and pose are superb. The background also adds a lot to the image.
Congratulations on an excellent capture. Did you shoot it at Blufftop?

[Stu Bowie]

Arash, you certainly nailed this. What I like are the warm colours from the late afternoon light, and you couldnt have captured a better pose. That tail sure is fanned to its limits. Congrats on a fine capture.

[Charles Glatzer]

WOW! Outstanding image!

Best,

Chas

[Grace Scalzo]

Fabulous! Love the crispness of your bird and the stormy background clouds.

[Colin Smale]

Yep, sometimes God smiles on us, cracking shot.

[Vida van der Walt]

Wonderful light and super image. Love the pose with the great wingspread, fan of the tail, great detail and two toned bg.:)

[Doug Brown]

Truly an awesome image Arash! Congrats!

[david cramer]

A real beauty. A little luck, but a lot of skill.

[Steve Maxson]

I agree with the others, Arash - this is outstanding! Wonderful light, a great pose, and a dramatic background.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very cool image! I like the light, sharpness, fanned tail, eye contact and BG. If anything, I might lighten the shadows on the wings a little bit. How much of the original frame is it?

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

This is gorgeous with a superb pose and the lighting is awesome . the detail and the awesome BG together puts this over the top. Congratulations on a beautiful image Arash.

[Harshad Barve]

Standing ovation from me for this outstanding image
TFS

[Mital Patel]

truly magical moment and you very well freezed down the harrier on time. do the accept your freezing warning every time you shoot them ? :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Arash...dramatic indeed. a definite IOTW candidate IMO. wonderfully composed, exposed and processed.

[Nancy A Elwood]

Well, I cannot add much to what has been said, but I am soooo JEALOUS!!! So well done!!

[Danny Laredo]

Simply outstanding!

[Gary Jones]

The light on the bird makes this - good warm colours against the dark BG. Perfect wing & tail position. they don't get much better than this!!!

[arash_hazeghi]

I am humbled to receive so many nice comments-Thank you my friends

[arash_hazeghi]

Wow, the light, detail and pose are superb. The background also adds a lot to the image.
Congratulations on an excellent capture. Did you shoot it at Blufftop?

Hey Luis,
You'd be surprised, I got this at the Baylands, near the trail head that goes to the nature center. got some nice gray ghost shots in the Byxbee park area too!

[arash_hazeghi]

Very cool image! I like the light, sharpness, fanned tail, eye contact and BG. If anything, I might lighten the shadows on the wings a little bit. How much of the original frame is it?


Hi Axel, in RAW Harrier is approximately 1300 pixels tall. The 5DMKII 21 Raw file is 3744 pixels tall so less than 35% or 1/20 area-wise, but the sharp, low noise and high quality sensor of the MKII allows for tight cropping without loss of detail.

[/URL][URL="http://ari1982.smugmug.com/Animals/raptor/Avian/10191557_hsE3k#783708464_VGbhx-O-LB"]Here is a larger (http://ari1982.smugmug.com/Animals/raptor/Avian/10191557_hsE3k#783708464_VGbhx-O-LB) version if you want to see more details.




Best,
Arash

[Jay Gould]

Mate, you deserve everyone of the compliments. This is so well done - IOTW material!!

You certainly demonstrate that in the right hands the 5D2 sings with a BIF.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Hi Axel, in RAW Harrier is approximately 1300 pixels tall. The 5DMKII 21 Raw file is 3744 pixels tall so less than 35% or 1/20 area-wise, but the sharp, low noise and high quality sensor of the MKII allows for tight cropping without loss of detail.

Here is a larger (http://ari1982.smugmug.com/Animals/raptor/Avian/10191557_hsE3k#783708464_VGbhx-O-LB) version if you want to see more details.




Best,
Arash

Thanks, Arash! The details hold up really well despite the heavy crop.

[Markus Jais]

Fantastic shot. The light is awesome as is the wing pose and the spread tail feathers.

Markus

[Alan Murphy]

I could stare at this for hours. It's really good. One of the best flights shots I have seen in a while.

[arash_hazeghi]

I could stare at this for hours. It's really good. One of the best flights shots I have seen in a while.

Thanks Alan for nice comments! and the great songbird disk, better than any "birding" book I have ever seen. Your elaborate techniques and attention to small details is really amazing. Hopefully I can learn at least some of your methods :)

[James Salywoda]

I'm in total agreement with Alan Arash this is an outstanding flight shot well done.

[Indranil Sircar]

Outstanding image, Arash. Spectacular light and details. Congratulations on your new 500.

[Marina Scarr]

What a dramatic cature, Arash. The light, pose and BG are killer. I have been using my 5D quite a bit for birds except for BIF. Maybe I need to reconsider that now that I have seen this and give it a try.

Looks like a candidate for IOTW to me!

Marina

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Phenomenal image . A very powerful capture . The light is out of the world !!!