Iconic Giraffe

Really enjoy the B&W treatment here - the giraffe contrasts beautifully with the background and the clouds mimic the mountains as well. Well executed

Love the facial expression you capture of the giraffe in that dramatic stormy clouds with great BKG setting. Glad you posted in B&W.

Sweet Morkel. I love a dramatic sky, especially in B&W. That's an interesting stance and facial expression you captured on that giraffe - they're usually so poised, stoic actually, but this one seams to be inquisitive.

Jim

As James mentioned, very inquisitive expression really makes it for me. The almost black cloud and distant hills give this a distinct artistic flair for sure, might be a bit too dramatic if you are aiming for strict realism. I like how the giraffe stands out so boldly in the mostly horizontal landscape.

Your B&W processing looks great and adds a lot of drama here Morkel. Giraffe are obviously fantastic subjects with excellent photogenic characteristics; the problem however with them is that their towering height can also be a disadvantage. Like in this case the fact that the neck is intersected by the dark/light line of the mountains in the BG is a bit distracting IMO.

Like the placement in frame here Morkel and the HA works nicely. Agree with Vincent on the neck, but nothing you could have done, but having it in the lighter area of sky helps give clarity. Personally I feel the darker part of the sky is just a tad to much in terms of depth of tone in comparison with the rest, just easing off a fraction? Reminds me of a recent cheetah image.

TFS
Steve

Great pose and look of curiosity(?) or caution. The BW is well done and shows the habitat in a fresh manner. In viewing the larger image I scrolled to hide the top most dark cloud and found the result to my liking. Looking forward to the color version.

I tend to agree with all the comments mentioned above.
Ideally, would have preferred a diffused skyline.
Jagdeep Rajput

Beautiful image and B&W goes well with this one. Processing has been neatly handled. Will look forward to see the colour verison as well...

regards,
Kaushik

Beautiful shot Morkel, it's hard for me to imagine the color version being better but I look forward to seeing it. I especially like the body position of the giraffe and the different shades of grey within the image.

Thanks for your comments, everyone.
I disagree about the neck. If the neck had to be below the mountain line, the giraffe would have to be further away and that would change the whole mood and purpose of the photo. I wanted a giraffe strong in the foreground with the mountain and ominous sky behind him. There's no way you can keep the neck "below the mountain" at this range without shooting from high up which again, changes the whole photo.

I darkened the top clouds for mood. I take a bit more liberty in my monochrome work than I do when I work in colour. But the clouds at the top were quite dark - you'll see in the colour version...