For over a decade this bird photographer kept up with his image culling. I bordered on anal about keeping it current. But almost exactly two years ago when health issues involving my back and legs began to make sitting at my computer uncomfortable and often painful I mostly quit doing it which resulted in a huge photo backlog. It was intimidating and depressing so I continued to ignore it and let it slide.<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago I realized that the next time I went shooting I’d have over 100,000 photos that I’d never culled. I was determined to not let that happen so yesterday I spent a big chunk of the day culling over 3000 images which freed up 92.6 gigabytes of disc space. It’s a start.<\/em><\/p>\n An unexpected bonus: in all that garbage I’m finding a few interesting photos and even an occasional gem or two. I might not classify the following two photos, taken about 6 weeks ago, as outright “gems” but I think they’re at least interesting and they deserve to see the light of day.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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 This Northern Harrier at Bear River MBR was hunting the phrags near one of the canals when she suddenly turned toward me. While I was quickly reviewing that morning’s images later that day I never inspected it carefully because with her coming at me like this I assumed the bird was soft. She isn’t, she’s actually very sharp.<\/p>\n I like quite a few things about the image but my favorite is its depth. For me the three dimensional aspects of the image almost suggest that she’s about to pop right out of my screen and onto my lap.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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 Six clicks later as she was hunting low and slow she turned her back to me. Normally I wouldn’t even be firing my shutter while she had her back to me but I thought this was such a neat display of her flared plumage I instinctively made an exception. I’m glad I did. I think the definition of virtually all of her remiges and retrices (flight feathers of the wings and tail) is pretty spectacular. Even her alulae can be seen clearly.<\/p>\n Normally I’m a fanatic about being able to see the eyes and here we can’t even see her head. But I still like the image. A lot.<\/p>\n Hopefully photos like these will encourage me to keep on chuggin’ away at my culling. I need motivation of some kind because doing it is a bona fide pain in the ass.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – Here in northern Utah we’re at the beginning of a snow dump. It started snowing hard during the night and it’s supposed to continue getting worse all day long. I made a 4:30 AM run this morning for supplies (poor planning on my part) and it was already a commuter’s nightmare out there. Many schools and universities are closed for all or part of the day and everyone’s being urged to stay home if at all possible. Based on what I saw at 4:30 I heartily concur. As hard is it is to believe the forecasters were actually right this time.<\/em><\/p>\n If any of you locals have no choice but to drive today BE SAFE! But stay home if you can. <\/em><\/p>\n Damn, I’m glad I’m retired!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addendum at 9 AM: I just measured 14” of fresh powdery snow on my front lawn and it’s still coming down hard. It’s supposed to continue for most of the day. Hope my snow blower starts!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plus a bonus image, what I think is a pretty spectacular “flip side.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/northern-harrier-9760-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-harrier-9760-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/northern-harrier-9766-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-harrier-9766-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/snowing-on-feb-3-2020-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n