Northern Harrier & Repost

Gallery: AvianPosted December 18, 2011204 views16 comments

We came home from running errands yesterday and when my wife came in she told me a Harrier had just perched up on the front fence. I grabbed the handy camera and decided to see how close he'd let me get (this guy has been a regular visitor for over a year now). As you can see, he was pretty comfortable with me. Even more remarkably, a car went by on the road about 10 feet from him while I was photographing, and he didn't fly.

The white blobs along the top are fences in the distance. I'd be interested in opinions on whether or not to leave them.

7D, 300mm f4 + 1.4TC, hand held, f8, 1/1600, iso 500 Av mode with no compensation. Sunny day. I added a bit of fill(16%)in ACR to bring out more detail in the shaded side. Otherwise normal processing in CS4. Full frame. Taken at 2:04 pm on December 17th.

I always appreciate your comments and criticisms.

Thanks for looking,

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on December 18, 2011 at 1:55 PM

Really nice detail on this cooperative fellow. The character in the rusty post adds interest.
I'd personally clone out the white fence posts; shouldn't be too hard to do.
Nice catch!
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Bryant on December 18, 2011 at 2:20 PM

Great looking bird and shot

IMO theres no need to have all the room at the top(unbalances the comp). Cropping off the top to lose the white would help the image.

Registered on March 31, 2006, 473 Posts, 1081 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on December 18, 2011 at 3:50 PM

Lovely light and details. I'd crop off the top too...in an ideal world I would have told the bird to perch on a more 'natural' setting

...

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on December 18, 2011 at 4:51 PM

Very nice Dennis, I'd be happy to own it. The perch although man-made, doesn't take away anything IMO.
I'd probably take out the vertical white blobs from the distant fence.
Well done & Merry Christmas!

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on December 18, 2011 at 7:25 PM

The harrier looks good and I like most of the background too. IMO you can crop from the top to minimize the OOF posts and make your comp more pleasing to boot.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Schiebelbein on December 18, 2011 at 8:18 PM

Agree with prev. comments regarding cropping a bit off the top. I like the shadow of his claws on the underside of the tail.

Registered on November 8, 2008, 55 Posts, 393 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Schiebelbein on December 18, 2011 at 8:19 PM

Agree with prev. comments regarding cropping a bit off the top. I like the shadow of his claws on the underside of the tail.

Registered on November 8, 2008, 55 Posts, 393 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Graham on December 18, 2011 at 8:19 PM

Wonderful light, and great detail. I agree that cropping the white blobs would help. I envy you being able to get close to one of these.

Registered on August 22, 2006, 842 Posts, 2824 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on December 18, 2011 at 8:39 PM

Really nice job on the hawk. BG whites don't bother me too much, but I'm glad to know what they are. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on December 18, 2011 at 10:06 PM

Nice to get close to this one! Agree with the suggested crop.

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on December 18, 2011 at 11:20 PM

Thanks for the comments. Here's one with a bit off the top and some patch tool work on the other areas to minimize them.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by David Williams on December 19, 2011 at 1:08 AM

Great to find an accommodating male, Dennis. I rarely ever get a decent shot of these guys. Crop off the top looks better to me, too. Nice one.

Registered on March 8, 2005, 315 Posts, 2291 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Bryant on December 19, 2011 at 10:10 AM

Sooooooooooooo much better

Registered on March 31, 2006, 473 Posts, 1081 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on December 19, 2011 at 2:50 PM

Very cool shot of the Harrier, nice to have a regular visitor like this, I like the repost much better, nice job in hand holding and approaching to get the shot, well done.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on December 19, 2011 at 7:40 PM

I like the re-post better as well Dennis. Loosing the whites from the top of the comp works so much better, IMO. Really nice to have this guy as a regular-lucky you!

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on December 19, 2011 at 8:59 PM

I really like the colors and the detail is excellent. I would consider cropping the post off the top.

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments