Giraffe Skies

Pretty great sky for this conversion. Without all those lines of dark and light clouds I'm not sure it would be as effective.

I hope to see a pic of the boat setup on FB at some point. Sounds intriguing.

Max

Morkel, this is my kind of image. It is at once incredibly powerful, beautiful, and evocative. The clouds and how you have rendered them, the quality and tone of the light, and mesmerizing composition knock this one out of the park. While I am not qualified to know for sure, I would expect this one will receive many worthy honours. I think your choice to leave a little detail in the foreground helps give this just that little extra as well. I did notice a pretty strong halo around the right-most giraffe that I'm sure you can easily correct in post.

Just fantastic. Love your decision to not go completely greyscale as well.

Wow, the feeling of vastness is just amazing. Thanks for the link so we could see the boat setup. Very impressive.

Very interesting sky, such a variety of cloud types and shapes. The sepia toning lends a nice calm feel here. I do wonder how this looked in color though. The vertical format does seem to make sense as the giraffe are undoubtedly vertically oriented; I buttress my point by suggesting that two hippos in the same location just wouldn't have the same panache. Well done Morkel - and all done from the comfort of a swivel chair you say, sweet!

Morkel Sir,

Yet another STUNNER ! from your side.

Composition , Vertical framing , massive space in this shot with toned b/w treatment is just too perfect .

The magical and dramatic clouds makes it a powerful image.
I am sure your artistic and unique style of Imagery inspires a lot including me.


Keep Sharing....

Regards
Saurabh Singh

You said it --Magnificent-- Well seen and love the crop and on what you have included in the frame. Well done

Balan Vinod

A stunning image!
I just love the scale and vastness of the scene.
Jagdeep Rajput

Hi Morkel,

This one works very well for me, and one of the rare times where I'll say unequivocally (and without seeing the colour version) that going B&W was a really good decision. Love how the sky is rendered, especially when the larger version is viewed. The extreme positioning main subjects (tho' for me the main subject may be the sky!) works real well here.

If I was forced to find a nit (hey, it's a critiquing gallery!) I'd say that the only improvement I could think of would be to train that cloud to NOT overlap with the head of the giraffe on the right! In other words...something that's totally out of your control (you did everything right and succeeded, despite Ma Nature trying to throw you a curve!).

Really well done - excellent post...thanks for sharing it...

Brad

Thank you all for the kind comments.

John - seems to be just some sloppy sharpening on my part - on these web files the giraffes really are small so artefacting is usually an issue in cases like this

Brad - I actually liked how those clouds were rolling in behind the giraffe

It actually looks pleasant in colour - am posting for your reference...

Really sweet image. I think the B&W one is stronger - the clouds are much more dramatic. Also the black foreground somehow doesn't match the blue background. When it's all one color I think it has a more seamless look.

Clinton

Black and white...or in color, doesn't really bother me. I like how the giraffe's look so small, know how huge they really are. They look so alone...in such a big world.
HollyMorris

I like both versions, but would probably choose BW as top. Excellent work.

Great cloud textures. The composition really enhances the grandeur of the scene. The giraffes anchor the image and provide nice scale. The BW is the stronger image.

Wow! What a dramatic scene, Morkel! I love the giraffes silhouetted against the bright sky. Beautiful comp as well!

The giraffe silhouette are a great base for this beautiful cloud-scape. Well seen and captured Morkel I like the B & W version.

Ken Archer

Thank you all for the very kind compliments...