Northern Harrier

[Dave Leroy]

It is not often we get winter sunshine.

This is from early yesterday morning. It would have been nicer a bit closer but this is what I got.

Often on clear, sunny days this time of year the Harriers will have frost on their backs as they get up and start to hunt. That is the shot I am looking for.

50D, 500mm +1.4 TC, 1/1600, f5.6, ISO800

Dave

[Richard Unsworth]

Like the foreground grass and perfect color/exposure and composition as

for me this adds a feeling of the bird going about his hunting in a large and wild space ie adds atmosphere

I am glad you didnt crop closer:)

Wondering if legs need more sharp if poss?

[John Chardine]

Quite lovely Dave. I like the balance of the image, in particular the emphasis given to the habitat. Even though it's OOF you get a really good impression of where these birds hunt. Love the wing position and overall composition too. A couple of things come to mind- I see some halo around the bird which is probably from sharpening. You can remove this with judicious use of a soft blur brush zoomed in. Also, I would tone down or eliminate the three dark blobs in the sky to the left.

[Peter Farrell]

Very cool flight pose and great light. I agree about the spots on the left and I migh crop some from the bottom.
Peter

[Dave Leroy]

Darn. I had a look for haloes and could not see any.

I had also looked at getting rid of bits of dark vegetation on the left. It seemed to leave a big hole, so I lightened them up quite a bit.

Here is a repost. Hopefully no haloes, I removed the blobs but added a bit of grass; I also cropped a bit from bottom, left and top.

I am curious to know if haloes are still around. Tks.

Dave

[Sid Garige]

Dave,

Excellent techs and great job in showing harrier habitat. Here is another crop I am thinking off.

I assume objective is to show a harrier hunting. I would take a bit off the top and go as wide as I can to give a sense of wide hunting area. Here is my comp. Let me know what you think.

-Sid

[Rob Mckenzie]

Such a great shot - beautiful light. I like Dave's repost with the subtle crop adjustments. I didn't notice the halos in the original. The blurred grass is an awesome texture. The detail on the bird itself is fantastic.

[Julie Kenward]

What a humdinger of an image, Dave! I definitely prefer your repost as it gets the bird out of center on the horizontal line. You really did some magic in catching this comp - he's right in the perfect place - above the grass line but close enough that we really understand his hunting behavior. Colors and soft light are beautiful. This is one of those times where eye contact is unimportant as I feel an immediate connection with him despite the HA.