Female Northern Harrier.

I've never had any luck with species, but on this occasion, rather than angling and flying away from my stopped vehicle this Norrthern Harrier came flying right towards me. At the very last moment it realized what it had gotten close to, and bolted away by banking very hard to its right...but not before I had had a good opportunity to get good photographs :c3: Next time I come across this species I will need to try David's tips found in Bill's recent harrier thread...

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/2500s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld from car, small crop top and right to help the composition, a faint oof grass blade removed from the BG.

Hi Dan, kudos for capturing this from your vehicle, as I know how hard it is to capture a flying subject, and all you have is the space of your window to manoeuvre your lens. Great head turn, and I really like the extended near wing. Overall well exposed and tack sharp, and gotta love that BG. Very well captured.

Agree with Stu( and gotta love that BG. ) recon you have got this spot on Dan, nice when it all works for you.

Keith.

I never managed to learn how to swing the big gun from the car.
Sometimes I had a 400 f5.6 L lens with the 7D to shoot BIF from the car with better success.
Excellent BIF shot of this hard to shoot species, Daniel.

Beginning to runout of superlatives here Dan, just love it, the colour palette is oh so good, too. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

Excellent Dan I like everything about the image, the only thing I would consider is a slightly looser crop.

Beautiful colours throughout, lovely BG and my, what a flight pose on this beautiful bird.

Will

Daniel:

Agree with all the above contents, colours,pose, bg, eye contact, all good.

I also have had little look shooting from my truck, and need to refine my technique I guess!

Lovely image.

Cheers

Randy

A real beauty Daniel! I like the wing position, head turn, IQ, light and complimentary BG.

You've done it again Daniel,a gorgeous shot

Hi Daniel,

What a bird, love the details. The composition and background are what really makes this shot stellar in my eyes.

Congrats on getting such an amazing shot of this bird Daniel, Thanks for sharing the inspiration too!

Ross

Superb looking Harrier in golden light, Daniel!

I entirely agree with all comments above, very little left for me to say other than: CONGRATULATIONS !

Thank you so much for sharing,

Warmest regards,

Beautiful background and good shot of a bird that usually does not give much opportunities to get pictured at close distance.

what a beautiful image! Light is amazing and really like that head position! Upper wing detail is very good too

I have had harriers do a similar swerve when they realise that there is a live human standing behind the camera!!

TFS

Very nice Daniel!! Looks like she got pretty close as you got some nice details in this. Gosh knows how many frames I have of Harriers looking down or another direction. That squeezing tip works great on a lot of individuals. Be ready because they can turn and come straight at you. Arash was out for the last few days and we shot a ton of Harriers and the squeaking and the call helped a bunch. Actually caught us off guard a few time as they came to close to fast. After they fall for the call a few times, you are done. Usually best the first time you see an individual. Need to be pretty loud too as the wind and distance can block or deaden the sound. Good luck!