Gray Ghost

[Jack Backs]

Male Northern Harrier from two years ago. I had just started pursuing these birds and found a spot where I was able to get pretty close to this individual a few times.
I'm starting to think it was beginner's luck. I've struggled to get within 100 yards since then. The problem with most of the images is that the D500 would invariably
focus lock on the wing leaving the head slightly out of focus. I went back and reprocessed with DxO and selectively sharpened the head with Topaz. I probably should
have been at least f8.
Nikon D500, 500F4G, TC14EIII
f7.1, 1/3200s, iso800

[Dorian Anderson]

Head-on pose is great; the three yellow bits pull out attention straight to where it should be - on the face! OOF stuff at the bottom of the frame is cool. Adds a splash of color/texture versus a pure blue sky. A very nice image.
I'm not a fan of deviating from 3x2 for horizontals, but the pancake crop does work well given the flat win pose.

These are indeed difficult to approach. I have nothing decent of this species.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Jack, I echo Dorian's comments. Really nice image, thank you for sharing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, these guys are so tough to approach! I've only ever had only good encounter for photos (a female) despite seeing them quite often. Great head-on pose here. Perhaps a touch more sharpening needed on the face for the fine detail, but I'm pretty jealous you got this and of the male no less.