Oriental Obsession

This week's theme for Collage Obsession is "Oriental."  Hence my post title, Oriental Obsession. 

I took this flamingo picture last year at the North Carolina Zoo. 

Here it is after levels, hue/saturation, etc.

This picture was also taken at the zoo, in their beautiful botanical gardens.  I resized this photo and merged it with the flamingos to make this a subtle background layer.  I erased this layer where it covered the flamingos.  It made the flamingo in the back of the picture pop - it was hardly noticable before.

You can make out some of the red flower in the background.

I also photographed this orchid at the zoo's botanical gardens.  I altered the color, removed most of the background, and added it to the flamingo image.

You can see the orchid in the upper right corner.  While I was happy with how this was going, I wasn't sure I'd achieved the theme of "oriental" and so went looking on the internet.

Where I conveniently found this bamboo.  I altered color and size and added it in the lower left corner to produce my final image.

Another fun collage, and I'm definitely obsessed with doing them!