In Flight Northern Harrier

[Alison McCoy]

I found a great place to practice BIF photography with a good population of Northern Harriers.



Canon 7d2 Canon 100-400mm II
f/5.6
1/2000
ISO 160
400mm

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Alison, you are lucky to have such great subjects to practise on. Great view of the near underwing, and I like the colours in the BG. A flight pose parallel to you would have been more ideal, but sometimes we have to take how it pans out in the field.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Agreed with Stu regarding angle of bird, but harriers (at least in my neck of the woods) are very flighty and unless you are using a hide or good concealment, you've got buckley's chance of getting shots.
Great details on the bird. Out of curiosity seeing the lens used, is this a very large crop? It looks very good and detailed at web size.
Cannot wait to see more of your wonderful harriers! :)

[Alison McCoy]

Thanks Stu. Agreed about the position but I felt I was lucky to get this one.
Thank you Akos. It is not a large crop. This was taken at a marshy refuge where they have built a long platform out into the marsh. The birds are rather used to people and if you stand on the platform and are patient they will fly quite close to you at times.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Wow. That's awesome then. Wish we had something like that locally. Our two harriers are rather skittish. Have managed a few reasonable shots, which I may share sometime..
Thanks :)

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the exposure, details, sharpness and complimentary BG. Hopefully you will get another image with a better flight angle. Well done Alison.

[Alison McCoy]

Looking forward to seeing some of your Harrier shots Akos. They are beautiful birds.

Thanks Jim!

[arash_hazeghi]

you got lucky you witnessed a grey ghost pass at close range, a few frames before this when the raptor was parallel to the back of the camera would have been ideal but it is nice frame. I would sharpen him a bit more

TFS

[gail bisson]

Hi Alison,
My jealousy bone is throbbing! How wonderful to have this bird fly so close to you.
This is a very good start for your BIF shots.
I won't repeat what the others have said except to say I agree.
I find the image a bit dark and might increase the exposure by 1/3.
I would also like to see a bit more room in front of the bird as well.
The BG is beautiful with its layers of color so I say keep on going to this special place and you will eventually get some killer shots which I look forward to seeing,
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Alison:

I think I would pitch my tent in that spot and work it for all its worth! Yes, a better angle would be more engaging, but lots to like. Good advice from the crew. Bit more sharpening on the bird, and perhaps a bit of extra exposure/contrast to give it just a bit more pop.

Cheers

Randy

[Alison McCoy]

Thanks for the comments and good advice Arash, Gail and Randy. Will keep working on getting that killer image.