A Silverback in the mist/rain, which I understand is the usual condition for this location in Volcans National Park, Rwanda. Looking at the photo now I would have liked a little more of the shoulder and body to balance the magnificant head. I'm glad I caught at least a tiny bit of the silver back color. I was only 12 ft (4 m) from this massive gorilla, on a steep, wet, slippery slope, surrounded by others in the viewing group and thus not very able to move freely to get a shot. Plus I was so in awe of the moment I was lucky I could even think to get a photo!
Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f2.8 L IS @ 110, f2.8, 1/800, ISO 1600
another of my bucket-list photos to get. lovely eye contact despite your own nits.
I would try to get the blacks blacker - remove blue channel saturation and increase the blacks in blacks and neutrals in "Selective Color" in Photoshop.
Thanks Morkel for the suggestions. They were spot on! Here is the improved version.
Why 1/800? It was rainy and gloomy and I set the ISO for 1600 and took what speed I could get. This was a brighter moment than previous ones. Eventually we were very lucky and the rain stopped, the gorillas moved out into a more open area and we had more opportunities for viewing and photos. It was an incredible experience. One of the silverbacks in this group was a baby in the group Diane Fosey studied.
I only took 1 gorilla trek and that was 1/2 day. I spent a week in Rwanda mostly bird watching.