Antique Male Northern Harrier

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

Not the bird, just the image. I was going through old files looking for Bluebird images for a project and got carried away just browsing and being disgusted with the quality of my old work. Then I ran across November 28th, 2010. The quality of many of the images was still pretty bad, but the saving grace was the subject. This Harrier showed up just as we were about to sit down for lunch and caught a vole in our front “pasture” on the far side of our septic drain field (hence the bit of green in the foreground). I grabbed the camera in hopes of getting a couple of frames before he flew off with his prey, but as I took a burst of images, moved a step or two closer and kept repeating, he just stayed put. I actually worked in until he filled the frame and I finally started backing off because I didn’t want the images quite that tight. This is one from after I’d backed off a bit. Of course, his cooperation did have its limits and he chose to fly when I lowered the camera for a second out of sheer exhaustion (that 500 mm f/4 was heavy!).

For some reason, I’d only processed a couple of frames at the time, so I decided it was worth another few with newer processing techniques and hopefully a modest increase in skill.

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What technical feedback would you like if any?

Anything. I tried to reduce the impact of the green foreground as I didn’t want to crop from the bottom and in fact added a touch of canvas there. Did it work?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Anything.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

7D, 500 mm f/4 ISL + 1.4 TC, hand held, f/8, 1/640, iso 400, aperture priority. Processed in LR & PS CC. A touch of canvas added to bottom and cropped from both sides and a bit off the top. 4908x3276 pixels before exporting. I did some extra blur and desaturation on the bottom to mellow it out. I also removed several bright grass stems.

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2

A once in a lifetime encounter! And well-captured, at that. I’ve never had anything close to this happen.

The bird is good and sharp. Exposure looks spot-on. I like the environment. I think the faint textures in the BG are just blurry enough that they don’t distract. I only wish we had a slight view of the feet so we could see the vole!

3

What a good shot, Dennis. Always enjoy watching them bob and weave their way low over fields or a ridge line but have never seen one on the ground, let again posing! Great facial shot .

4

A good looking male. Nice and sharp with good eye contact and nice profile of the head area. The bottom looks fine to me.
Looks like you got down to eye level.

5

Hi Dennis, really nice image of a very rare encounter. This shows off the habitat where they like to hunt as well. Nicely done.

6

Hi Dennis,

Getting a shot of the gray ghost is always special. So you have been holding out on us :wink: . The comp is fine and there’s just enough habitat to give the viewer enough info on where these hawks live. I might be inclined to tweak up the contrast and brightness on this one as my only suggestion. Otherwise, awesome shot…Jim

7

A nice sharp look at the harrier. The low point of view with the slight head turn shows the bird well. I like the comp; the soft OOF foreground and background seems similar to what we see from Hans Overduin and frames the harrier well.

8

Well, very good you kept all these images, otherwise we would have missed this … Impressive bird, and nice to have it on the ground. Love the composition as well. Love the different layers created by the DOF. Well done ! Cheers, Hans

9

Excellent job in the depth of field in this one. Really enjoy the light; wonderful composition. I might consider clowning out the OOF Golden branch in the upper right corner.

10

Really nice look at this guy, Dennis. I am glad you were looking back at some of your old photos. Yeah, I know what you mean, some of my old stuff doesn’t rate being on a hard drive! I can see where I have improved, by looking back, so that is a good thing. Great shot.

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