A Spartan Portrait

I took some pictures of emus last week on my visit to Shields' Greenhouse in Spraggs, PA.  Using a telephoto lens, I managed to get in close.  Too close, some might say.

This is what it looked like, processed in color:

I usually don't do much black & white, but this subject demanded that I try.  Here's the same emu rendered with Silver Efex Pro 2.  I used the D019 Fine Art filter w/ a Kodak ISO 32 Panatomic X grain (or lack of) effect:

Thus my dilemma.  Which is better?  The color or the black & white?  From my indecision came a compromise.  I layered the black & white over the color and then set the blending mode to Multiply. The result looks like something in the style of the movie 300.

It works for the emu.  This is a very Spartan portrait.