Winter scene in Vermont-Northern Harrier
Winter scene in Vermont-Northern Harrier
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Awards
Contender in the Photography Awards
Action Award
Chatter Award
Contender in the Visual Poetry Project
Contest Finalist in Wildscapes Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Wildlife Friends Photo Contest
Zenith Award
Contest Finalist in The ViewBug Project
Top Shot Award 21
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in Celebrating Nature Photo Contest Vol 7
Contest Finalist in Animals With Wings Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Winter Wildlife Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Celebrating Nature Photo Contest Vol 5
Contest Finalist in Covers Photo Contest Vol 49
Featured
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Genius
Virtuoso
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Flyingpenguine3
April 26, 2019
Magnificent Wings, and I love that intent look. I also love how it doesn't look staged the way some bird pictures do!
randalwallen
April 23, 2023
Outstanding capture! Still hoping to get a good look at the male Northern Harrier. I always see the females or immature. I saw a glimpse once of the Grey ghost.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at Dead Creek Wildlife management area in Addison Vermont. It is a great spot for all kinds of raptors, and huge flocks of migrating Snow Geese. I almost always see a Norther Harrier there, flying low around the corn fields.Time
I took this photo at around 3 PM in March.Lighting
The light was pretty good-no sun, but bright snow.Equipment
I used a Canon 1D Mark IV-and old war horse, with a Canon 400 f/5.6 lens. This lens is also a classic. Not image stabilized, fut really fast and sharp. I handheld the camera for this shot and a series that went with it.Inspiration
This is one of my favorite raptors, and it's behavior that day was striking-it kept diving for prey in the snow.Editing
I don't recall much post-processing other than sharpening camera raw, and cropping. I might have used a little noise reduction.In my camera bag
I am shooting with a Nikon D500 with a 300 lens and a 1.4 teleconverter at present, for shots like this. It is much lighter to carry and seems like a pretty good compromise for a long-ish lens. I still have my old 1DIV and the 400 lens. Love it, but it's pretty slow compared to the Nikon.Feedback
Knowing where to look is on the top of the list for a bird like this. Then you have to always have your camera with you-I keep mine on the car seat for quick grabs-sometimes shooting out of the car window-it makes a good blind. You need a fast shutter speed-this shot was 1/3200 sec. at f 7.1 ISO 800. Aperture priority. In this case the ISO determined the shutter speed. 800 is fairly high for this old camera, but it did the trick, and wasn't overly noisy. I'm always on the look out for birds and this was no exception. I went to this place expecting to see this bird and wasn't disappointed, though that is not always the case. Coming home empty-handed is part of the game- it takes a lot of lousy photos to finally come up with a good one, in my experience. Each effort is a learning experience. I love being out there exploring whether I get a good shot or not.