The ethics of wildlife photography
The ethics of wildlife photography
There is one fundamental wildlife photography rule: your image is not more important than the animal’s welfare.
You will see plenty of bad practices online – some of which are illegal – and you do not need to emulate them. Some photographers will go to any lengths to get the photograph they want, including harmful baiting, disturbing nesting birds, chilling or killing insects so they stay motionless for macro shots and destroying habitat with thoughtless approaches.
Educate yourself before you interact with wildlife. In the UK, your local wildlife trust or the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds will have free resources. If you are going on a workshop don’t be afraid to question the group leader on their ethics. If they know what they are doing they will be happy to reassure you, but if they are defensive or you are not sure, book with someone else.
If you have been photographing for a while without realising you may have been disturbing wildlife, it can be hard to admit that you have been doing it wrong. Do not let that stop you doing it right in future, though.
Here are a few considerations to bear in mind:
Wildlife is wild. If you get too close it can attack.
Avoid leaving food out for an animal (‘baiting’) so it comes to a spot where you are ready and waiting to photograph it. Baiting can mean your subject is being fed an inappropriate diet (for example, feeding bread to ducks); can come to rely on humans for food; can be tempted out of its natural habitat and exposed to predators, including domestic cats and dogs; can break the bond between a young animal and its parents, meaning it doesn't learn the skills it needs to survive.
Many photographers use flash to create a ‘catchlight’ in an animal’s eye, freeze action or add a fill light, while night-time photographers will use flash to capture hidden wildlife. However, flash will startle or even temporarily blind the animal, meaning it cannot hunt or see where it is going, affecting its normal behaviour.
Drones can create great aerial photographs, but they can also disturb wildlife. Do your research and be careful not to use them during the breeding season or when parents have dependent young.
Don’t deliberately scare an animal to make it fly off or move. This is disruptive to its normal behaviour and means it needs to use energy unnecessarily.
Learn what a stressed animal looks like: if you see stressed behaviours, you are too close. This also applies to badly run workshops and crowds of rare-bird spotters that crowd an animal.
Remember, your image is not more important than the animal’s welfare.
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This post is taken from A Second Year With My Camera, the wildlife module. To join the preview emails for this course, click here:
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