{"id":1694,"date":"2010-12-25T09:09:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-25T15:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=1694"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:04:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T20:04:52","slug":"nothern-harrier-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/12\/25\/nothern-harrier-repair\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Harrier Wingtip Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ClippedClipped wingtip young male Northern Harrier – D200, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 400, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I usually do very little post processing of my images, cropping, rotation or white balance adjustments then selectively masking and sharpening the subject is about all I do.<\/p>\n

But there are times when I think an image might be worth a little extra work and this young male Northern Harrier image seemed worth the\u00a0effort.<\/p>\n

I was photographing some ducks in a small pond that has marshy areas on the shoreline and was focused on the birds on the water when out of the corner of my eye I spotted this young male harrier coming in my direction.<\/p>\n

I quickly focused on where I thought the harrier might fly by but I had not zoomed back and the harrier flew closer than I anticipated, thus the clipped wingtip.<\/p>\n

The image above is full frame, straight out of the camera and resized to\u00a0850 pixels on the long side.<\/p>\n

I knew when I clicked the shutter that I should have zoomed back to 350mm but it all happened so fast.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung male Northern Harrier with wingtip repaired – D200, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 400, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I brought the image into ACR, made my adjustments and cropped the photo there then opened the file in Photoshop.<\/p>\n

I had to add canvas on the bottom and that took me longer than repairing the wingtip so that it looked very natural.<\/p>\n

The final image is a bit tighter on the top and bottom than I normally like but I loved the spread of the wings, the view of the plumage patterns and the look of concentration on the harrier’s face.<\/p>\n

I could not post this to a critique forum without disclosing the repair work I did to the picture because of my personal ethics.<\/p>\n

Also I don’t want to mislead any new photographers into believing that this image is “natural”.<\/p>\n

In addition, I wouldn’t enter it into a contest because the rules often stipulate that only minimal processing<\/em> should be done and cloning is not a minimal “processing”.<\/p>\n

I learned from this experience though and next time a situation like this occurs I will back the zoom up a bit.<\/p>\n

Even my photographic mistakes teach me something of value. On that note, I should say, this image didn’t make it into my photo galleries.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Northern Harrier photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are times when I think an image might be worth a little extra work in post processing and this young male Northern Harrier image seemed worth the effort to repair a clipped wingtip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,348,26],"tags":[2663,765,2783,3164,4033,4169,519,4006,391,310,4063,153,1077],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-nature","tag-northern-harrier","tag-photoshop-repair","tag-post-processing","tag-raptor","tag-raptors","tag-wingtip-repair"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-young-male-fixed-mia-mcpherson-9297.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-rk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4660,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/20\/northern-harrier-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":1694,"position":0},"title":"Northern Harrier in flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Just an image I took yesterday of this male Northern Harrier in flight. As simple as the image is I like the great eye contact it has.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male Northern Harrier in flight, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20298,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/20\/northern-harriers-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1694,"position":1},"title":"Northern Harriers On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Male Northern Harriers, also called Gray Ghosts, are especially delightful to my eye when their plumage contrasts with soft bluebird skies that have just a touch of habitat in them","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Northern Harrier with the Wasatch Range in the background, photographed from Farmington Bay, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1454,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/11\/24\/northern-harrier-gray-ghost\/","url_meta":{"origin":1694,"position":2},"title":"Northern Harrier – Gray Ghost","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I will have more opportunities with northern harriers in better light this winter and while I wouldn't consider this image perfect, I am happy with the results I obtained while photographing this \"Gray Ghost\".","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\u201cGray Ghost\u201d, male Northern Harrier in hovering flight, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-mia-mcpherson-male-flight-4804.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-mia-mcpherson-male-flight-4804.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-mia-mcpherson-male-flight-4804.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-mia-mcpherson-male-flight-4804.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8239,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/29\/northern-harriers-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":1694,"position":3},"title":"Northern Harriers In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Northern Harriers fascinate me partly because they are sexually dimorphic; meaning that the males and females look different even though they are the same species, and also because of their owl-like facial discs.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Northern Harrier flying near the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flying-mia-mcpherson-9971.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flying-mia-mcpherson-9971.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flying-mia-mcpherson-9971.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flying-mia-mcpherson-9971.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13087,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/01\/10\/a-resting-northern-harrier\/","url_meta":{"origin":1694,"position":4},"title":"Resting Northern Harrier","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Farmington Bay Waterfowl Area used to be my \"go to\" place for photographing Northern Harriers but this winter they are hard to find.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched Northern Harrier at Farmington Bay in northern Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-perched-mia-mcpherson-0099.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-perched-mia-mcpherson-0099.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-perched-mia-mcpherson-0099.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1706,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/12\/29\/northern-harrier-expelling-a-pellet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1694,"position":5},"title":"Northern Harrier Expelling A Pellet","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This Northern Harrier took about a minute to expel the pellet and I filled my buffer several times trying to catch all the action. The harrier appeared to be concentrating so hard on regurgitating the pellet that it nearly fell off of the fence.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Northern Harrier almost falling while expelling a pellet off of a fence railing, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-slip-pellet-mia-mcpherson-5796.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-slip-pellet-mia-mcpherson-5796.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-slip-pellet-mia-mcpherson-5796.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-slip-pellet-mia-mcpherson-5796.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}