Northern Harrier-Female

[David Salem]

Captured this a few months ago when the Harriers were in my area in good numbers. They have thinned out allot and many have migrated and left only a few residents.
Normally I dont love shots with a defined broken line in the BG but this one is cool because the line is blue water. I like what it dose for the color of the female Harrier.
Got a pretty nice head turn as she passed by. Hope you like it.

1DMKIV---700mm---f5.6---ss1/2500---ISO800---HH@4:30pm---25%crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. Appreciated

David

[Don Nelson]

Excellent details and head turn just right. Great low lighting. I'm not keen on the blue/red background cutting through the bird but placement is the best possible in this situation. I surely do like the bird regardless of background. Nice job!

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent detail and flying pose, nice head turn and eye contact, perfect light.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the pose and whilst the background junction may not be perfect it doesn't trouble me too much. The head turn really couldn't be better.
I am guessing the ambient light is attributable to the colour of the bird, I would consider lowering the highlights a little and giving the bird a little more pop/contrast and some additional sharpening, I sense this would enhance an excellent image.

[Nick Palmieri]

I think the two tone BG is okay as the gorgeous head is not dissected. Beautiful light. Nice job.

[vishaljadhav]

What a fantastic image,
The light is magical and the bird has been superbly captured in flight, 2 toned bg looks wonderful to me and you have got the face of the bird with the blue behind it which makes it more nice to look at
i love the eye contact and a perfect exposure

[Dave Leroy]

LOvely flyby pose and colors. Good comments about the intersecting bg and living with what you get. I could also see this a looser crop. Very well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

David, Had you not brought up the "broken line", I don't think I would have even noticed it. It doesn't intersect her head and the background is far enough away that it is wonderfully blurred. The bird pops off the screen here, giving the image a nice 3D feel. Nice details, light, head turn, sharpness. All add up to a pleasing image - a pleasure to view.

[Shawn Zierman]

The warm golden light, (and the fact that it's a raptor in flight against a non sky bg), are insta-draws for me.
I enjoy the split background, and it goes rather well with another name for this bird..."marsh harrier", fitting
to capture one with water in the image imo...impressive to get the subject size that you did with only a 25%
crop. Well done.

[Karl Egressy]

Great light, HA and background, David.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi David. I love this image - beautiful light, excellent sharpness, perfect wing position, and the slight head turn puts it over the top (I like that the bird is not looking directly at the camera). The 2-tone background looks fine to me. Excellent work!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, just love the overall light in this, which in turn has created lovely warm colours. Great flying pose with the raised wings, and a great head turn from her too. Im totally fine with the BG. Well captured.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wings up, perfect head turn, sweet light and attractive background all make for a successful raptor in flight image. Very nice!

[Bill Dix]

I'm not really crazy about the two-tone bg (although it might make a nice flag). But otherwise this is a killer image. The flight and wing positions, the spectacular light, the head turn. Very well captured.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I really like this David, what an awesome capture. Beautiful light, nice HA, perfect wing position, its a killer image!

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful light bringing out all that detail, super sharpness, wing position and awesome look at you! I'd be out of my mind with happiness if I ever got one this good of a harrier.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

One heck of a shot. great light, head turn, wing position and BG. With flight shots, you cannot always control where the transition line in the BG falls...so I am fine with that. Would love to have something like this in my files. way to go...

[Sidharth Kodikal]

The gorgeous light has set this bird aglow! Excellent pose, and especially love the head turn. The bg doesn't bug me one bit.
Excellent, David!

[Loi Nguyen]

David, there is a lot to like with this image. The light is sweet and the details are fantastic. Head turn was great. The two tone BG cutting thru the bird isn't ideal, but overall this is a great image. Well done.

[christopher galeski]

its all been said,magic image,great light,head turn.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
Love the warm light and the two tone background.
Excellent head angle and IQ.
Well done.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments greatly appreciated