Northern Harrier - male

amazing ron!
you,re the harrier flight shot king!
denis

I think the comp is great. I am so impressed with the sharp face and feather detail.Those eyes are killer. Ron, did you have to use any NR at 500?

Thanks Cheryl. No, I didn't use any NR. I must admit that I don't even know how to use it...

Ron this is fantastic. Awesome sharpness, HA, and the comp works just fine for me.

Your work continues to inspire me. You really nailed those eyes!

- Luke

Looks like he is sizing you up for dinner! Great shot, nailed EXP and love the sharpness of the bird.

Ron the subject is just so perfect!! Very well done!! I think I would try a bit more blur to the BG. This is where the noise reduction software might come in handy. More noise reduction the more blur, so I sometimes use it for that effect. I use the CS3 plug in Nik define, by niksoftware, and selectively apply the amount you want to just the BG. You can do the same thing using Gaussian blur selectively.

Ron, I have seen several of your harrier shots now, I am sure you posted quite a few before I joined NPN, but I like this one the best of any in recent memory. For 45% of original the detail on this bird is magical. I cannot get the feather detail to show much at all in my harrier shots and this one looks like it is flying by outside my window. To add even more, it's a male. I can't even find a male to shoot. I just love this BG too, it adds interest and habitat, but is also a super BG for this bird to stand out in front of. Eye contact is about as good as you can get and the detail in those eyes is as good as it gets, period. Great wing down position to top it all off. Really superior work, Ron!

Stunning detail Ron - well done

cheers
Rob

Wow...this is sweet. Love the eye contact. Think the composition is perfect.

Ron,

Having spent the last several days trying to capture a good harrier shot all I can say is WOW!!!! Great Shot

Ron this is just outstanding! The background patterns are fantastic, and to have the bird as sharp as it is and stand out so well against all else...

This is an incredible photo! The clarity, DOF and composition are superb. I really can't see anything that can be done to improve this one bit.

Just marvellous, Ron! Co-incidentally, I saw one this afternoon but no photo! They are very rarely seen here.

OK...that is awesome!

Can't say anything that hasn't been said. Incredible shot.

Wow, this is great Ron, can't say i've seen a background like this before and that bird is tack sharp, stands out beautifully.

Sweet shot. The eye contact is awesome.

simply superb, Ron. The detail looks excellent for a fairly large crop. The eye contact is wonderful, and it is awesome to see such a good shot of a male. I really like the background here also--perfect harrier habitat, I would not try to blur it anymore at all. It does seem like choosing the comp would be challenging here, and I think you've done well.

vow - awesome eye contact

Ron, the detail in this shot is stupendous. I think the repeating pattern in the BG add to this.

That head turn makes it worth doing a lot of playing with this one, Ron. I think maybe it's the size of the phragmites(?) in the bg, but I think the bird deserves a bit more space in this one both bottom and left, if you have it. Still a wonderful flight shot of this bird.

Another amazing flight shot. Well done.

Super image Ron, the head-turn is a stand-out to me.

Doesn't get much better than this Ron. Was the car moving when you took this one ?
Perfectly frozen action, and a stunning look at the face.

Really impressed with this shot Ron especially as I received my 7D only yesterday.The bird looks really sharp and I can't see any noise. Hope to get some flight shots myself this year but I realise that it takes a bit of camera craft to get shots like this. Graham

Ron, this is wonderful! I really like the BG in this and I think the pattern of the grass or reeds (not sure which) actually adds to this. The eyes are mesmerizing.

Wow Ron!!!!!! They just keep getting better and better. I do not think I have ever seen this much detail in a flight shot before. Great head turn and eye contact. The background and composition work really well. Congrats on an awesome image.

Wonderful BG, head turn and sharpness. A really great shot IMO, Ron.

Ron,
because of the time zone I come a bit late, but I also would like to say extraordinary image to you.

WOW!

It's all been said - one of your best

Super Nice Ron!!!

Ken Archer

A superb shot, Ron. Astonishing detail for the heavy crop, brilliant capture and outstanding techs. I'll join the others in calling this your best Northern Harrier post to date. Simply wonderful.

Not much to add Ron, impressive flight photo especially considering you had to wield the big lens inside a vehicle to get it. I like the composition you chose as well.

Ron-
I'm a little late weighing in given the tremendous support expressed for this image. I agree with the others that this is spectacular. An adult male, no less, which is about as good as it gets.
I do have one question that none of the others have raised. Clearly the eyes are quite spectacular, and many others have commented on them. But they seem just a bit bright to me, and I'm wondering if you boosted the saturation a bit to highlight them. If so, it would be good to mention that; if not, you got an exceptional male in terms of the brightness of his eyes and the light allowed you to capture that wonderfully.
Congrats.
Ted

Hi Ron
This is one of the best images of a Harrier I've seen, I would love to get something of this quality.

Great work.

Ted Swem wrote:

"I do have one question that none of the others have raised. Clearly the eyes are quite spectacular, and many others have commented on them. But they seem just a bit bright to me, and I'm wondering if you boosted the saturation a bit to highlight them. If so, it would be good to mention that; if not, you got an exceptional male in terms of the brightness of his eyes and the light allowed you to capture that wonderfully."

Ted, Thank you for your comment and interest in my image. I did no selective processing on the eyes of any kind, including saturation. Here's what I did do: 1), crop and convert to jpeg with no adjustments in ACR, 2), mask the bird only in CS4, 3), minor (+4) increase in saturation to the whole bird, 4), 1 1/2 rounds of sharpening (USM) to the bird only, 5), add copyright. No other processing was done to either bird or background. It's possible that I may have increased contrast on the entire bird slightly (can't remember absolutely) but I'm virtually positive that I did not. The RAW file can verify what I've said here.

Also, BNA Online says of Northern Harriers "In adult males, iris and edge of eyelid are lemon to orange yellow", so apparently there is some variation in eye color in the males.

Here is the photo with no processing of any kind. All I've done with this version is crop and add my copyright.

Ron

Sweet!

Hey Ron

piercing eyes, if he had looked at me like that I would have run a mile

Ron

Ron,

You already know I think this image is wonderful, shows high quality with excellent techs. I would not blur the background on it, it is unneccessary and imo would appear unnatural.

Wow, looks great to me and what a look, just an outstanding image, way to go.