Female N. Harrier

Love the look she gave you and the overall body angle in this one May. Very nice work!

Nice shot, May - great to see the pattern on the upper wings ! Cheers, hans

May, Great shot with the back in sight. Fine detail and clean BG.
To me, seems just a little flat, so may benefit from a bit more contrast.

If you don't use the Viveza filter, now free in the Nik bundle collection, I'd urge you to get it.
Viveza would bring out even more detail in the feathers, including the whites.
Very fine work!

https://plus.google.com/+NikCollection/posts/AFGsG2Di7EK  -  Nik

Sandy

Wow, very nice angle you've got here, May.
Great image

Far better than any harrier flight shot I have, May.  I love the angle and head turn.  You might jack up the iso as far as your camera can comfortably handle to keep the shutter speed as high as possible.  You don't mention what kind of exposure control you were using, but Nate taught me to use manual exposure for flight shots and I find that it does work much better.  I just find something white in the area to do test shots on and make sure the whites are just shy of being blown.  You do have to watch for changing light and adjust now and then, but it's usually not that difficult to know when.

Supberb body and wing position. I really love that look she is giving you. I would experiment with lowering the exposure just a bit on the bird only. To me, it looks just a bit over exposed all over. Regardless, amazing capture. Well done.

I haven't seen many better of this species, May.  Nice work.

Beautiful, May. It appears just a bit oversharpened. I urge you to follow up on Sandy's suggestion and try the Nik package. Terrific tools and the best image sharpening I've seen.

What a unique flight pose you captured May. Love it, no nits from me.

This is as good of a Harrier flight shot as I have seen. I have also been shooting manual on my flight shots for the past few months and it does make a difference.  The other item I mention has to do with the Nikon 300 2.8 VR and 1.4 TC combo.  I have the lens and it is one of my sharpest Nikon lenses however adding the teleconverter is counterproductive and negatively affect the image quality.  This is a heavy combo and weighs in at nearly 6.5 pounds plus.  If you can afford it, you might take a look at the Sigma 150-600 C as it weighs 4.5 pounds.  I find the weight difference a real game changer for in flight shots.

When I was putting down the specs I should have also mentioned that it was a manual exposure.  David, I did try out a Sigma 150-600 but I did not like it.  I found it difficult to focus.  Could have been the model I was trying out.
May

Outstanding flight shot, May. Love the wing position, fanned out tail, headturn and the sky behind.

Super flight shot May, love the fanned tail, eye contact and the exposure and contrast both look good on my monitor.