![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/northern-harrier-6261-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-harrier-6261-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nParticularly with birds in flight our backgrounds can have a major impact on our images, one way or the other.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago at Farmington Bay WMA this Northern Harrier made an unexpected pass reasonably close (for a harrier at least) to my pickup. The bird was traveling at a pretty good clip so I had a difficult time keeping focus locked on the hawk while shooting out my window. This is the only sharp shot I got that I liked.<\/p>\n For my tastes this would have been a nice but still fairly run of the mill photo if the background had been featureless sky or anything else that was homogeneous. But in this case the marshes and grasslands of the refuge provided at least nine horizontal layers back there to make the photo more interesting. As a bonus the layer colors are complementary to the hawk which in my view enhances the aesthetics of the image.<\/p>\n I’ve always been a fan of soft layering in my backgrounds but your mileage may vary. That’s as it should be.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Particularly with birds in flight our backgrounds can have a major impact on our images, one way or the other.<\/p>\n