Raven Storm

Hi everyone! I posted this image earlier last year (in colour), but I thought I would do a repost as this is a much improved version. I was notified last month by Canadian Geographic magazine that they wanted to use this in an upcoming special issue on wild weather. We had already converted it to B&W, but my dad decided that he could improve the image for publication, and this is what we came up with! The story of how I got the image is below.

We saw these storm clouds on our way to photograph elk in the fall rut. My dad and I thought it was a really cool scene with the backlighting and the mountains in the background. As I was framing up the shot a raven flew into the shot and I managed to get this picture. Afterwards when I was looking at the pictures I realized that his beak was open, calling (it's hard to see in these smaller images).

I know some of the highlights in the clouds are still blown, but overall we like how this effects the dramatic scene as the sun broke through the fall storm.

Thanks for looking!

Nikon D70s
Tamron SP 70-210mm f/2.8 LD @ 135mm
ISO 200
1/800sec @ f/8

Notes from my dad about processing:
- switched to Phase One Capture One for RAW processing of this image, reduced exposure and levels slightly to hold as much detail as possible in highlights
- used Nik Silver Efex Pro for B&W conversion
- blended multiple layers for maximum detail throughout scene