Camera Traps and ethics. PHD.
Every time a photograph taken with a camera trap or a trigger wins awards comment ensues. In the essay linked to this page I have weighed some of the pros and cons of camera trap use and, I hope, stirred the waters just a bit…
We live in amazing times where advances in digital technology can allow insights into nature previously not possible. We humans perturb and often contaminate systems by our presence. I would suggest that, far from ‘cheating’, photographers with camera traps are showing their immense respect for animals and a deep concern for their welfare. Success does not come without detailed observation and study first. Surely, we must applaud that?
Not only camera traps, but also remote controlled cameras, both stills and video, have a part to play. Observation from a distance, and understanding the subject, is vital tool for the animal photographer. see http://www.vimeo.com/5555366
Hello Annie,
I think that you hit the proverbial nail when you say ‘part’ to play. The questions to be resolved in competitions are exactly what part? On that the jury has not even begun to sit. Thanks for the link – very interesting
Some years ago, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year was won by someone who wasn’t particularly into wildlife or the photography of it, but who had taken a great picture while on a cruise to the Antarctic (if I remember correctly). He may have produced the Wildlife Photograph of the year, but how could he be called Wildlife Photographer of the year? Another item for the jury?
Annie
This is the only problem with competitions their titles often as misleading….
The Badger image of 1995 was taken by a studio/commercial photographer a chance encounter as he described it.
NATURE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR would be more appropriate in view of the categories and single nature of the winning image.
Kind Regards
GS
That’s what I’ve always thought it should be. For the nature photographer award, a portfolio ought be required.
Annie, Geoff,
Please excuse the joint response but I have been on my stomach photographing fungi in a cold, wet wood all day. Competitions are always such a source of disagreement because they involve humans as entrants and as judges. I have sat on too many panels and often been more interested in the way my fellow judges act (and interact) than the material in that no two people bring the same set of criteria to bear in making a decision. Whenever I have judged competitions at any level I am honest: I choose what ‘hits me’ and then intellectualise after the event (if that is what is demanded) and can employ pseudo-intellectual BS with the best…but not believe it! I can think of only a few Wildlife Photographer of the Year ‘firsts’ that would have been my choice- but that is the nature of the game. What cannot be doubted is that with all the shortcomings you mention it does evoke tremendous interest and huge numbers of submissions. The international level of interest also brings in a huge diversity of styles (even if we might not like what is currently in vogue). ‘Photographer of the Year’ as a phrase is a bit of ‘hype’ to spawn interest. For that mantle to stick a person should demonstrate a wide range of styles, skills and subjects. After all, there are plenty of folk out there producing stunning work who don’t enter…I used to grimace when I saw magazines that carried an article or portfolio of mine using grandiose terms of praise such as ‘best this and that’, now I just find it funny because it is not true. For many wildlife photographers the subject is the thing and many of us are angst-ridden since we never quite get what we want, know our shortcomings and then, if we like something, we begin to worry that standards are slipping! The problem is when people begin to believe the hype about themselves… However able you are, whatever awards you win or books you write there is someone out there who will take your breath away…but that is good because we should just go away and raise our game. After all, the most valid competition of all is against yourself and pushing your own standards to levels you never thought you would reach. I have to admit that I am not a ‘competition kind of person’ I get more worked up over issues and campaigns. But it is a lovely feeling when someone whose work you admire, wins and then comes up and says “your book inspired me” – when they have taken the material way beyond that.
I am not a competition kind of person either, and a lot of that is because the judges can only be subjective when it comes to looking at the top pictures (once they’ve got beyond the “does it fit the criteria” stage). If ordinary people like my pictures, that’s fine by me. Those of my pictures that say “wow” to me, are often different from those that say “wow” to any other person.
I hate being asked to judge things – it’s most likely to happen when I’m asked to give a talk to the WI, and they sometimes expect their guest speaker to judge all sorts of peculiar things.
Your last sentence provoked a memory – I had been asked to do the guiding on a boat trip to Grassholm, the original guide having pulled out after double-booking himself that day. Afterwards, word came back to me from the national park people that one of the participants had been asked how the trip went. She said it was great, however she was disappointed that the guide “wasn’t Jack – it was a girl, but she was quite good”. Having a positive comparison to Jack was good enough for me! And I was in my late thirties at the time.