Animal Antics Fine Art Prints

Not a "Flamenco" dancer, but rather a "flamingo dancer", this funny image of a flamingo ballerina was a bit complex to create. I began with some flamingo photos. The head and neck were one photo, the body another, and the legs came from a third shot, but I didn't have any photos of a flamingo with its wings outstretched. Luckily, while on a shoot on the island of Socotra off the coast of Yemen, I managed to photograph a number of Egyptian Vultures in flight. One of those shots provided just the wing angles I needed, so I used Photoshop to select the vulture wings and color them to match the flamingo colors. 

While on a stock photo shoot in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I had rented and photographed a dance studio (including the barre) which provided the background. I had also photographed ballerinas in Buenos Aires and used some of their dance slippers which I Photoshopped onto the flamingo's legs and feet. 

All in all it took me about a day and a half of Photoshop (and looking through my archives for the right "parts") to create the image. For me, what really makes the image are those little ballet dance slippers on the flamingo's feet...makes me smile everytime I look at it!