Northern Harrier Female

[chris mayne]

Taken at San Elijo Lagoon in Cardiff, Ca. She was hunting the marsh grass and flew to this berm where she sits and looks out across the lagoon wetlands. I was waiting on the downside of the berm, knowing her habit of landing in this one place. Here she just comes up over the top.

MKIIN
500 4/L
1/1250 @ f/6.3
ISO 500

www.chrismayne.net

[Joe Senzatimore]

It pays to study the habits. This is outstanding. The eye contact puts it over the top.

[Mike Tracy]

Unusual but complimentary colors in the background. Pretty light on the harrier also. Nice wing position and I like the feeling the bird is flying upward. I wish there was some separation between the nearest wing and the ground. While the HA is killer in my book I wish we could see his right eye better . There also seems to be a lack of detail on the side of his neck compared to how well the rest of the bird displays.

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice pose, head turn and wing position. Something is wrong in post processing and IQ is suffering due to coarse detail and halos , I would consider reprocessing this image.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Chris,
I love the earthy colours in this. I too would like to see a little more of the right eye, but love the way you have captured the pose.
Regards,
Nicki

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Chris, Nice capture. I like the wing position, background, and head angle. I like that you captured the bird as it was flying slightly towards you. The only thing I find a little (and I stress little) distracting the wing tip touching the ground. Thanks for sharing.

[chris mayne]

Thank you all for your input and suggestions. I went back and made some changes, removed some of the berm to lift the wing off the ground. I had a really hard time fnding the courseness and halos but I pulled everything back a bit and hope that took care of it. Glad you guys see better than I do.

[Doug Brown]

The repost is a definite improvement on a very striking flight image. I particularly like how low the Harrier is to the ground. However there is still a lack of fine detail in the bird's plumage.

[Michael Zajac]

Nice flight shot and I like the eye contact. BG colors are beautiful. Very good details.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Also, prefer the repost. Agree with Arash that the first post looks as if something went wrong in PP, especially around the head.

Anyway, great image - composition and head angle. Colors look a bit greenish here...

JR

[Harshad Barve]

awesome shot with compo , expo and HA spot on
repost looks better
TFS

[Raymond Barlow]

beautiful image, I like how you reduded the effect on the berm on the repost.

[Raymond Barlow]

sorry, doubled this one!