The adult Turkey vultures have bare redheads that resemble those of turkeys, which is how they got their name. Their genus name, Cathartes, means "cleanser," reflecting their role in cleaning up carcasses from forests and roads. When vultures sit with their wings spread in a position known as the "horaltic pose," it helps them regulate their body temperature, dry their feathers and kill parasites.
I captured the image of the unusual, contrasting position of the vultures using a tripod and my Nikon D810 camera with a 180mm lens set to f/8 in the high desert of the Southwest.
I was going to call this shot "Expose Yourself to Art" after the mayor of Portland, Oregon, who, back in the eighties, to promote Art Month in Portland, asked a photographer from the local newspaper to accompany him to a sculpture in the city with a nymph inside the fountain, where he dropped his trousers and opened his trench coat—the photographer captured the image from his backside. The "Expose Your Self to Art" photo was featured in The Oregonian newspaper—the good old days.