LIONS & TIGERS & BEARS PART 2

Well, despite my best intentions, it's been about a week since my last posting. As I stated last week,
many wildlife photographers, while secretly shooting much of their work at zoos, wildlife parks, etc., publicly denounce this form of wildlife photography as fake. I will take issue with this attitude on two fronts. The first concerns the fact that most wildlife photography takes place under varying degrees of controlled conditions. The photographs taken in wild game preserves in Africa for instance, or on expeditions to Antarctica are taken under conditions which fall far short of the lone photographer camped with his (or her) camera for months deep in the Amazonian rain forest in search of whatever jaguars, monkeys or whatever cross his path. It's just a matter of degree. Secondly, shooting at a zoo or wildlife park actually presents less ethical concerns than does shooting photos in a more natural environment. An inexperienced photographer, or worse yet a jackass who just doesn't give a damn, can do irreparable harm to a fragile habitat. That's not to say that photographing at a zoo does not come without its own ethical considerations. I was photographing at a zoological park several years ago when, suddenly, Mr. Obnoxious arrived with several thousands of dollars in photographic equipment in tow. "Stay out of my way!", he shouted at the other zoo visitors. "I'm a professional." Mr. O then began firing his flash at a 90 degree angle directly at a glass enclosure frightening away the bobcat which promptly hid, thus depriving the zoo's visitors from being able to view the animal. And to boot, he didn't get a photo of the bobcat, just the flare of his flash boomeranging back into his camera. The moral of the story? One idiot is all it takes to ruin things for everyone. However, the damage Mr. Obnoxious can do during a day trip to the zoo is far more limited than the carnage he can cause in a fragile environment like a tropical rain forest. So enjoy a photo trek to the local zoological park and if someone asks where you took the photo of a mountain lion climbing up a rock outcropping, proudly proclaim, "I took it at a zoo, thank you.".