Two rams met on the ridgeline and stood measuring each other, horns matched like brackets. From lower on the slope I could put them clean against the sky — no bush, no clutter, just the two shapes and the space between them, which is what the encounter was actually about. They held the pose longer than I deserved.

The Standoff
Pumba Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa · December 2022
1D X Mark II, 400 millimetres, f 5.6, 1/500 of a second, ISO 100