Northern Harrier At Viera

[bobhoge]

At previous MI shoots Nan & I saw a Northern Harrier at some distance, way too far for a photo. This year at Viera we saw them three times quite close.

They are hard to photograph as they soar along about 10 feet off the ground, following the terrain, looking for little critters to pounce on.

Scanning the ground:

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Following the terrain:

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They seem to pull up a bit soaring over the water (this one is not cropped, the rest are about 1/4 frame):

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When they pounce onto the ground, they really blend in:

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Bob & Nan

 

[HarryB]

Nice set of a very difficult subject.

 

[Backdoctor]

Nice Bob, you got a lot closer to the devil than I did...

 

[johncarol]

Those are really great shots, especially #4. Do you mind if I do an edit on that one and post it?

 

[bobhoge]

Those are really great shots, especially #4. Do you mind if I do an edit on that one and post it?

Hi John,

Help yourself, I would like to see what you can do with it. Here is a link to the largest (X3) size at our Smugmug site. http://bob-nan.smugmug.com/photos/473738407_RC3oK-X3.jpg

I could also email you the full size one if you need it. It is a large - fine .jpg file, I'm not a raw shooter.

Bob

 

[bobhoge]

Nice Bob, you got a lot closer to the devil than I did...

Hi Harris,

We missed seeing you at the shoot this year!

We saw Harriers in the distance during the other MI shoots, but this is the first time we saw them close. There were two working the area near "the tree" by the lookout tower at the same time. It was hard to decide which one to watch and shoot.

We saw a single one near the same spot on an earlier visit, but it just wanted to hang in the high grass like in the last photo in the post. Maybe it was working on a meal.

Bob & Nan

 

[johncarol]

After spending some time on another Harrier I found some things that I thought helped, what do you think? I just downloaded you jpg to try it. It is such a nice pose with eye contact. Sooooooooooooo

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[bobhoge]

Hi John,

That is interesting... I put your version, my version, and the original .jpg file on the light table. Your coloring & contrast is very close to the original. Yours looks a bit sharper than the original, but then you were working with my sharpened image.

Do you think I am boosting the contrast too much? I am doing it in Levels, pulling in the left and right sliders until I hit part of the image. Then adjust the center slider a little. Added a little Unsharp Mask crop and save.

Bob