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I prepared this one for a magazine portfolio of my monochrome work appearing in the near future, and realised I hadn't posted it here yet. This is one of my favourite monochrome wildlife images.

The photos in my portfolio that give me the most satisfaction are ones like this, where I had a pre-visualised image in mind, and things came together perfectly for that vision to come to fruition. I've always wanted an image of a zebra against the backdrop of another zebra's skin pattern. When I came across a herd of zebra on a rainy day in the Kruger Park one morning, I saw that this foal was lingering close to its mother all the time.

I waited for it, and for a brief moment I had my shot. The overcast conditions ensured an even spread of light so the focus could be on the contrast inherent in the skin textures and patterns without the added contrast of light and shadow. For me, the most effective monochrome images get created by learning to "see in black-and-white" beforehand without the camera.

Techs:
Nikon D300s with Nikkor 200-400mm f4 VR @ 400mm
f4.0 @ 1/1000 SS @ ISO-800