Previously I touched on my use of black and white to salvage a less than ideal file. Trawling through my image bank, I came across this image, taken the trip to Melbourne zoo that was one of two images that gained a life with the switch.
Taken through dirty and flare affected glass, through a lot of low angle sun haze and needing heavy cropping, this image started very humbly. I made the mistake of printing it once on my own printer. There is half a tank of black ink I will never see again, but it came up well enough. The other image in the series is of a grizzled old Lion face taken through a cyclone fence and some tall grass. Unfortunately I only have a print of that one as the original is proving hard to find (I have had hard drive issues in the past, like many). Having the prints though, highlights the need for printing as the only truly viable storage system for your most precious images.
The camera was the 450d canon and the 400 f5.6L. A great combo in the right conditions.