Is this wildlife photography or not?

[Woody Meristem]

The thing missing in this discussion is that we all impact animal behavior by our mere presence in their habitat. Hopefully nobody really thinks that the bird or mammal that is within "portrait" reach of your 600mm lens doesn't know you're there -- they certainly do. They may not perceive you as a threat and behave relatively naturally, but they know you're there and will not actually behave as they would if you were not present. See that black bear in my avatar, it was a wild bear on a 10,000 acre tract and feeding on fallen acorns when I suddenly walked up on it causing it to look up (yeah, it startled me too). It went back to feeding as I took dozens of photos and a video, but it kept looking up to check on me -- was it behaving totally naturally? It was a wild bear gobbling up wild food but, because I was there, was not really acting naturally. The bear finally wandered off after apparently consuming all the acorns, but maybe it left because I made it nervous -- it didn't say.

 

[Deleted member 115]

I do have friends on Flickr that plant gardens to attract birds and share photos of them. It’s no secret. I enjoy looking at their photos.
We have a hummingbird thread here in these forums also

 

[PLM1911]

I'm not going to add to this discussion because I think it has already been throughly discussed be the numerous folk on this forum. I do hope you all will forgive me for stepping off subject long enough to address a comment that Jeff made on an earlier page.
My apologizes.
PM

I'll add a second thought here. I believe the 'is this real nature photography', 'is this wildlife photography,' 'would a real nature photographer do xyz? discussions are really counter productive. My dad and several of my friends are "hotrodders". The same debate in the hot rod community exists with regards to the younger generation adding turbos, NoS bottles, etc. to the small import cars. That's not real hot rodding. I have always argued that is exactly what hotrodders in the 40's 50's and 60's did. They bought cars they could afford and then altered them to make them go faster.

Back to photography, I think a more productive discussion would be what is ethical in our relationship with the wildlife and our desire to capture a photo. Truth is us walking down a path disturbs wildlife. Our presence in the forest disturbs wildlife (deer can smell us from very far away bears even farther). So, to say we, as photographers, wish to have a zero impact is saying we will never go into the field to take photos. My wife and I jokingly say the creatures of the forest knew we were there the moment we stepped out of the car and started walking into the woods. That is probably closer to truth than we care to acknowledge.

So, the question in my mind becomes what is acceptable disturbance vs. unacceptable disturbance. I believe there are some things we all could agree on (don't dig up a fox den with a backhoe excavator to see the kits.) and some things are gray (standing 50 yards from a raptor nest to shoot photos).

OK, this has been an interesting (and surprisingly civil) discussion.

Jeff

Jeff

I'm an old time hotrodder myself. I love those old hotrods using 30s, 40s, 50s model cars. It used to be that 49 and earlier model year cars were considered "hotrods" but that seems to be changing. I do agree with you considering modifing a car or truck to increase it's performance, is exactly what we old time hotrodders did. In my opinion, nothings changed. I still consider a S10 pickup with a V8 engine swap to be a hotrod, same goes for those vehicles with forced induction or NOS. Heck, even John Force considers his Nitro burning, top fuel Funny Car to be a hotrod.

PM

 

[jeffnles1]

I'm not going to add to this discussion because I think it has already been throughly discussed be the numerous folk on this forum. I do hope you all will forgive me for stepping off subject long enough to address a comment that Jeff made on an earlier page.
My apologizes.
PM




Jeff

I'm an old time hotrodder myself. I love those old hotrods using 30s, 40s, 50s model cars. It used to be that 49 and earlier model year cars were considered "hotrods" but that seems to be changing. I do agree with you considering modifing a car or truck to increase it's performance, is exactly what we old time hotrodders did. In my opinion, nothings changed. I still consider a S10 pickup with a V8 engine swap to be a hotrod, same goes for those vehicles with forced induction or NOS. Heck, even John Force considers his Nitro burning, top fuel Funny Car to be a hotrod.

PM

My dad just sold his beloved 1970 Chevelle Convertible. He is 83 and doesn’t drive it any more. I still have my 76 Vette. I love the old cars

 

[Manglo]

Thanky you to all of you who gave her/his opinion and contributed to this discussion.
Stay safe and healthy.