Marsh Harrier

Hi all

Took this shot last month and I keep returning to it undecided: some days I like it, other days I just shake my head. I want to like it but I think it's a victory for content over style: all the elements I want are there but it just doesn't gel.

Any opinions?

Simon


Canon 1dIII 500mm

awesome is what id say! love what youve done with this, its one of them you have to call enviro which basiclly means ... the flipping thing wouldnt come any closer, great use of everything and its a winner for me

I also think this works very nicely. Lots of interest - I could imagine it going down well with the Norfolk/Suffolk Tourist Board!

Matt

Hi Simon this is a great shot. Ideal for a Calendar

Simon,

It works for me. Great shot.

One suggestion would be to include more of the reed bed - although that would require an obliging harrier;-)

Rob

This doesn't quite work for me. I find it a bit too 'enviro', with the bird very small and the windmill obvious, it comes across as more about the environment than the animal in it. I think if the bird were a little bigger, and/or the the windmill perhaps a little less dominant it would work better (for me, at least).

Greg

I think I have to go partly along with Greg on this. Lovely shot but the windmill kind of dominates.
Just my opinion.
JohnR

this is great image in my opinion, the sharpness on the harrier makes up for it being small in the frame

I think this works superbly. The composition with the placement of the bird and windmill at opposite corners is superb.
An excellent bird in enviroment image and a keeper without a doubt IMO.

look nice for me

I think it's brilliant Simon. The harrier is so sharp that it draws my eye immediately, despite it being so much smaller in the image than the windmill. The picture tells so much about the environment and the windmill gives clues as to the part of the country that the bird is found in. I simply love it.
Robert.

Hi Simon,

I like your approach but it doesn't quite work for me. I think the windmill is a bit dominating.

Thanks for all your comments - I'm still undecided!
Taken aback by a few people thinking the windmill is too dominant How do include a windmill in a norfolk landscape without it being dominant?!! Surely without it the photo just becomes a distant shot of a marsh harrier.
I think my problem with it is the quality of the light - it's uninspiring.


Simon

I think its a very good picture Simon, but of course 'to die for lighting' would raise it to another level. A lot depends on lady luck.

John

Simon
I think its mainly to do with the brightness of the windmill not just the size. The line of focus on the bird appears on a level with the corn in the foreground so the bird was relatively close in the whole scheme of things. It would be interesting to know the exif info,as the lens used would determine the effect of the windmill which is obviously quite large..
Good tourist board shot though.
Cheers
JohnR

One of your best Simon infact one of the best shots of a Marsh Harrier I have seen and a classic Norfolk scene. I have the impression this forum is being taken over by bird photographers where everything has to be big in the frame and then it will get plenty of nice comments. When I first started posting on here this would have got a great responce but a lot of these Guys seemed to have moved on which is a shame because then you would have got the praise you deserved for this great shot

Danny