Monochrome Wildlife Photography

Introduction
I have always liked black and white images. There is something classical and timeless about a monochrome image that hearkens back to the formative days of photography. Without the distraction of color, it is up to the composition, contrast and texture of an image to tell the story. Converting a color image to monochrome should be a 'special treatment' not a way of 'fixing' a color image or making it 'useable'. Many images simply will not work well in monochrome but those that do will reward the post-processing time.
Wildlife photography is a genre that is usually expressed in color. The reason for this is obvious. The natural colors of animals, particularly brightly colored species, can be striking and often an attractive environment or warm lighting will also be important to the image. Most of my own wildlife images are in color for this reason. However, monochrome conversions can also make images that are appealing and compelling in a completely different way.
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