Hey Doug, I can see why you like this so much. Excellent pose showing the dorsal view, with a good banking angle. Well placed in the frame, with good eye contact. Blending in the LLC could be an option.
I have over 20 different banking images of Harriers, only one thats in decent focus.....they are so hard to track. Banking pose, look, wing position and exposure make this a keeper... sharpness already been mentioned....TFS
The biggest thing that kept this image from being tack sharp was the heat shimmer/ thermals at the time of image capture combined with the fact that the bird was relatively far away from me. At Half Moon Bay heat shimmer can be a real problem, even with a temperature of 60 degrees. Here's a 100% crop of a RAW file from that same banking sequence. The squiggly horizontal and vertical lines are all heat shimmer
A little later in the day when the shimmer goes away and the bird is a little closer to you, things improve quite a bit. Here's another 100% RAW file crop (unprocessed) of that same Harrier.
Doug, fantastic pose and background. Image could benefit from some brightening - without blowing the whites of course.
I'd mostly certainly taken the sharpness as shown but agree that many of your other images are significantly sharper. How far away from the Harrier were you? Half Moon Bay can be absolutely epic (see my email last year) but it just doesn't happen each year. Best, JR
I'm not totally sure its heat shimmer Doug but I'm certain its caused from the moisture in the air here on the coast I've trashed tons of images because of it. I think the shots composition really looks great nice dorsal view I can see why you like it I'm glad you had fun.