Northern Harrier against a stormy sky

[Keith Bauer]

Captured this image in Utah last winter while shooting with Doug Brown and Jim Neiger. Some great light from a stormy sky behind the birds and some light breaking through from behind us.

Canon 50D, 500mm f/4 with 1.4xTC
Manual Exposure
1/1250 @ f/8 ISO 800
Noise Reduction applied to the background

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent color and warm tones against gray BG really sets the bird standing. I wish for more eye contact. I think BG needs more NR as I can see blotches of red and cyan mixed with gray on my screen and also there are minor hot spots around the eye and on the tail (-1/3 EC will take care of these)

Great shot!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Wow Keith! That's some wicked light there man! I admire the overall scene very much. Agree with Arash regarding the hot spot on tail. I am OK with eye contact as it's banking and probably more concerned with keeping track of its travels than you photographing it? Thanks for sharing. :)

[Brian Zwiebel]

Hi Keith, That is some wicked light! I love sun lit birds in flight against dark, stormy skies. Perfect composition for your subject.

Good Shooting!

BZ

[Lorant Voros]

Beautiful light on the bird. I'd run selective NR on the BG. Congratulations.

[Charlie VanTassel]

Some really nice light that you had there. I can see a bit of a halo under the bird's head.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Agree with above comments but this image has lots of drama in it, not only the sky but also
the head turn of the bird and the overall pose, really like it.

[Brian Barcelos]

This one is excellent. Love the pose and colors. BG is lovely and nice comp. I don't mind the head angle, did you try recovering the whites? Congrats

Brian

[Leo Berzins]

Great pose, lighting and dramatic background.

Do the local raptors always queue up and pose for photographs whem Jim and/or Doug are around? ;)

[Keith Bauer]

Great pose, lighting and dramatic background.

Do the local raptors always queue up and pose for photographs whem Jim and/or Doug are around? ;)

haha.... Yeah, you'd think so wouldn't you. Thanks to all for the comments so far. The whites at the base of the tail are pretty tough to hold in Northern Harriers and especially in this kind of light. I did do a linear burn on the whites in an attempt to bring some of the detail back. While they aren't blown in the original Raw, there still isn't much detail to play with.

[Stu Bowie]

Sweet light, and I like the banking angle, and head turn. Great capture Keith.

[Dave Barnes]

Very dramatic light well captured. Ditto noise and halo. (did you use a shadows/highlight filter in PP?)
Good flight angle and comp.

[Kiran Poonacha]

The best of light and BG you can get for flight shots Keith... congrats...

[David Fletcher]

Agree with above comments but this image has lots of drama in it, not only the sky but also
the head turn of the bird and the overall pose, really like it.

Agree too, but wicked lighting! Very well done.

[Dan Brown]

Hi Keith! Great shot. I really like the dorsal view, HA and the contrast between the bird and the BG!

[Joe Senzatimore]

What a fantastic setting/BG for this magnificent bird. You did it justice. Just beautiful.

[Kobus Tollig]

I have removed some noise on bg and desat the bird. Hope you dont mind. Great shot with good eye contact and pose

[susanschermer]

Sorry, but the desat on the bird kills what was gorgeous about the image: light against dark. The illumination of the sun on a bird with a storm sky in the bg is a situation that I always hope to encounter. Congratulations.

[Doug Brown]

Do the local raptors always queue up and pose for photographs whem Jim and/or Doug are around? ;)

Yes they do! ;)

[Arthur Morris]

Was this a vertical ORIG? IAC, the light and the pose are killer as noted above.

[Keith Bauer]

Was this a vertical ORIG? IAC, the light and the pose are killer as noted above.

No, this was a horizontal. IAC?

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Keith. IAC = In any case....