Lunch

Greetings. Having some fun with Nik & Topaz filters. This shot of a hyena was taken at the San Diego Zoo broad daylight through a chain link fence. The hyena looked at me from his food or water bowl which was at the entrance of a cave up a hillside 10 or so feet from my vantage point. Masked with black fill layer. Combination of Nik Silver Efex & Color Efex, Topaz InFocus, Adjust, DeNoise, Detail, cloned in some detail in a couple of blown spots and cloned out some green grass shoots, uprezed from large crop, curves to bring out eyes. Composition centered on dominant eye (left, I think) for eye following portraiture trick (see Mona Lisa).

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Hi, Michael, that's a scary looking hyena. I think I'd like to be able to see just a hint more of the body but I like the deep shadows and the lighting and the organic colors:S3:

I agree, scary stuff. Put a chill down my spine! Just enough detail in the eyes.

Definitely scary-looking! Without the description I would think it's a hyena at a kill in the wild. Very nice chiaroscuro! I'm okay with not seeing more of the body. It makes it more mysterious.

Hi Michael, this is an interesting and different image and I like that! It is a little disarming thanks to the stark black background and the partial body illumination, but that gives an artsy edge for my eye.

Cheryl, Jackie, Cindy, Kerry,

Thanks much for the comments. This was taken from a pretty poor shot really, but for the eye contact and the tongue... had to chop the body somewhere. In the highly unlikely event ( ;-) ) that I would print this I might add a slight additional fade on the right & right front leg.

Enjoying the theme. Beginning to develop an eye for potential (pause while I look up the spelling...) chiaroscuro opportunities...

Cheers,

-Michael-