Wildlife Photography Ethics

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Minimize your Impact on Nature

Any time we venture into nature, with or without a camera, it’s important to follow a few guidelines to ensure that we minimize our impact on wildlife and its habitat. It’s all too easy to discount the effect that we have as individuals, but a visit to nearly any national park, wilderness area, trail, and campground reveals the simple truth that humans are messy, careless creatures as a whole.

For some photographers, the quest for the perfect wildlife photo pushes away any common sense and they will do just about anything to get their shot, even if it means putting their wild animal subject at risk. As wildlife photographers, it’s important to be stewards of the environment wherever we go. We all make poor decisions from time to time, but if you keep these guidelines in mind, you’re less likely to have a negative impact on the wildlife we all love.

Avoid stressing the animals being photographed

A stressed animal can not only become a danger to humans, but it can also endanger its own welfare. There are some photographers who will pursue a frightened animal, driving the animal into dangerous situations like onto a road. As photographers, our goal should be to capture the natural behavior of wild animals with our cameras, rather than modifying it. Not only will trying to minimize your impact result in happier, healthier animals, but it will also result in better photos.

Try to keep out of sight (and smell) of the wildlife — avoid wearing fragrances like strongly scented shampoos, colognes, and perfumes. Keep your voice down while trekking to a location and remain silent while you’re observing and photographing wildlife. While it might not be obvious to us, even slight stress to an animal can cause it to modify its behavior, resulting in an abandoned nest, a missed mating opportunity, or an aborted hunt — critical events that ensure the survival of a species.

If you see wildlife mating, building a nest, or feeding their young, keep your distance. Long telephoto lenses enable us to photograph wildlife from afar, minimizing our impact on their natural behavior. If you notice that an animal becomes visibly agitated by your presence, move further away.

Limit your Physical Impact on the Environment

Trails and paths are there not only to keep us from getting lost, but to minimize habitat destruction as well. When possible, stick to established trails. When no trails exist, exercise care while you walk — animal nests and burrows are all too easy to destroy with a careless foot-fall. As just one individual, it’s easy to assume that our impact on the environment is minimal, but when we take into account the ever-increasing number of people visiting wilderness areas, it becomes apparent that we all leave an impact on the land.

Respect the Wildlife

Feeding wild animals can lead to their dependence on humans as a source of food, altering their natural feeding habits and reducing their valuable fear of humans. A wild animal that has been fed by humans is more likely to seek out humans for more food, leading to negative consequences for both animals and humans. A wild animal that sees people as a food source is also more likely to bite or be hit by a car when it seeks out more food.

As mentioned above, keep your distance and make use of your long lenses during mating and nesting seasons and times when the wild animals are more vulnerable. For example, while the photographer might not mean to, pursuing a fox or deer through the winter snow in an effort to get a shot might drive it closer to a predator like a wolf. The less of an impact on the natural balance of the environment we have, the better.

Keep your use of artificial lighting to a minimum. While humans may have learned to not become agitated and fearful when we see a camera flash, wild animals have not.

Make the Wildlife your Priority

You may have seen photos of some safari tours, with dozens of vehicles crowded in a tight circle around a single lion or following it in hot pursuit as photographers aim their lenses out the windows. Our desire for the perfect shot can drive us to put our photography ahead of the well being of the animals, but the more conscious we are of our impact, the better stewards of nature we’ll be. Read online reviews and steer clear of tours that don’t care about the wildlife, harassing the animals so their clients can get a closer shot at any cost — there are better businesses to support who do value the well being of the animals.

While images of animals on the hunt are often the crown jewel for wildlife photographers, it’s important to consider the impact that your presence can have on both predator and prey. To reference those African safaris again, many species of prey animal have learned to associate the presence of vehicles to mean that predator species like lions, cheetahs, and leopards are hunting nearby. Ethical tour leaders know to keep their distance, actually increasing the chance that their clients will get to see one of the coveted chases. It might mean that a longer lens is needed, but the wildlife photographers can feel better about the fact that they haven’t contributed to modifying the behavior of these wild animals.

Digital Manipulation of Wildlife Photography

Along with photojournalism, there is a general expectation of accuracy and honesty in wildlife photography, so if we look at a photo of three penguins standing on an iceberg, most assume that there really were three penguins standing on an iceberg. Many people would react poorly if it was revealed that there was actually one penguin and it was really standing on a gravel beach, with the two additional penguins just cloned copies and the iceberg a separate photo entirely. Situations like this raise the question of what is ethical when it comes to digital manipulation in wildlife photography.

While stylistic creativity is important, most wildlife photographers feel that their viewers should be able to trust that what they see in a photo is what the photographer really saw in nature. With the exception of fine art photography, where a greater degree of manipulation is usually expected and condoned, most wildlife photographers draw the line at minor adjustments like cropping and straightening the horizon and making small changes to levels, contrast, and white balance.

If you are upfront and honest about what you’ve done to manipulate your photo, it still might not appeal to the purists, but at least you’re not being dishonest. Every year there are controversies when photographers entering their work in contests or publishing their work in magazines and newspapers are found to have manipulated their photos without disclosing that fact to the viewers, publishers, or judges.