What constitutes the perfect nature photo?
Is it the detail and the sharpness? The composition? The balance of colour and light or the way they interact? Perhaps it is all those things and no doubt you will come up with a whole range of different factors which contribute to creating the perfect image. In reality there is no perfect image. There is perfect to you, perfect to me and perfect to them, but chances are none of those perfects align…
One thing which we don’t often consider in all this, is the aspects of photography outside of the photo and the end product. Namely, what impact did I have on the subject during the process of creating this image? What impact will the final image have on the subject once it has been refined and shared in some form?
Everything we do has an impact in some way, that cannot be changed. What we can change though is the level of impact we have, and when it comes to photography, there are a lot of ways in which we can negatively impact our surroundings without always being aware that we are…
Tread Lightly
We cannot go through life without treading on things. It is an impossibility. There are things in the lawn, there are things on the footpath, things on the tracks that run through our favourite forest. If we think we can have zero impact on all the things, then we are dreaming. We can however, minimise our impact on things.
Problem: In the process of trying to not tread on the tiny little flower we are trying to photograph, we are probably treading on other species which are just as important, even if they aren’t our target. These species might be common ones, or might be threatened ones, either way, they are getting squished.
Solution: Stick to the formed tracks. Grab yourself a long lens so you can zoom in from a distance away. If there are no formal tracks, try and stick to the animal tracks, or the informal ones rather than making a whole new path. Stick to standing on the rocks, don’t lay your whole body down to get the low angle, remember, it might just be a ‘grass’, but it is just as important in the ecosystem as that pretty little orchid.
Compact Less
The more people that stand on one piece of earth, the more compact it gets, like your front lawn where you park your car because the driveway isn’t big enough. Less water gets in, less air, it’s harder for the bugs and worms to tunnel through it. This makes it hard for roots get through, especially the tiny little fragile roots of new seedlings and plants. Quite often you will see a flattened patch surrounding a much photographed plant, this can be very detrimental to not only the plant in question, but any others that might be trying to grow there too.
Problem: Excessive numbers of people visiting the same plant or shooting the same landscape view from the same place and compacting the soil around it to the point the soil finds it hard to function.
Solution: Try and avoid sites you know will have heavy foot traffic, and if you really really must go and visit, make sure you take that long lens so you can stay well back (preferably on a track)
Cleanliness
Certain pathogens and diseases can spell disaster for many of our ecosystems. Some species are more susceptible than others, some pathogens are more mobile than others. The best way to remember which ones are worse then others, is to not try and remember. Just work on the theory that any species can be affected by any pathogen and you don’t have to waste time wondering if you should or shouldn’t worry. It’s a bit like indicating, make it a habit so you just do it without thinking. And you don’t want to be responsible for introducing something that could completely wipe out the thing you are going to photograph and everything around it… that would be bad.
Problem: People inadvertently spreading weeds, disease and pathogens to new areas.
Solution: Keep your gear clean, boots, gaiters, walking poles, tripod ends, basically anything that comes into contact with the ground. Clean off the dirt and grime and spray with a disinfectant like F10 or metho to kill the gremlins. Do it before you go out for the day, when you get home and in between if you are visiting different sites.
Share Wisely
Once upon a time, it wasn’t such a big issue to share the locations of where the cool things are, plants, animals, nice waterfalls etc. Although with the invention of the interwebs, things are a bit different these days. Your reach can go far and wide and can attract the hoards, a lot of whom are more concerned with getting the hits that a viral image of a rare plant or animal might bring. Think about whether you really need to share that image to social media, especially if it is of a significant site or species. But if you must, consider adding some useful information about reducing your impact, such as a link to this post, or to the Ethical Nature Photography booklet produced by NRM south.
Problem: Social media posts attracting hoards of people to areas which cannot deal the traffic, in turn, areas and species get inadvertently damaged.
Solution: Don’t post the location, or even the image of a sensitive area or species. When posting images of not so sensitive things then consider accompanying that post with some useful info on reducing impacts.
Gardening is for Gardens
‘Gardening’ around the area you are photographing can be a pretty detrimental practice. I know it is super tempting to do a bit of ‘weeding’ or rearranging to make the image perfect, but I urge you to refrain. What it can do is open up the species you are photographing to predation, harsher impacts from the weather or disturbance from fauna or human traffic. If it is an insect or fauna species, then it can also destroy their homes, and the housing crisis isn’t just restricted to the human population…
Problem: Gardening an area to make the shot ‘picture perfect’, disturbing the habitat.
Solution: Pretty simple this one – don’t trim back foliage, shift rocks or debris or move things around to make your photo pretty. Keep your gardening to your garden.
The moral of the story
The moral of the story is not to stop going out and enjoying photographing the world. That would be rather boring and also kind of pot calling kettle. What we all need to do is to challenge ourselves a bit more.
During a workshop into ethical orchid photography at the Royal Botanical Gardens last year I met a wonderful woman who was a mad orchider. The approach she had was slightly different, in the sense that she was on a mission to photograph as many species of orchids as she could… from the path. Her motto was not to trample through the grasslands or scrub on the hunt to lay down and squish everything. Her challenge was to photograph them from a distance, even if it made it harder.
She inspired me a lot that day, and made me think about my own behaviour. My work takes me to a lot of wonderful places to see a lot of wonderful plants, so I am a bit lucky. I get to work in some of these areas in order to help protect them from all sorts of impacts to do with recreational uses, weed invasion, development pressures and all kind of issues. I always need to be super mindful of my impact when I am out in the field, especially when I am working in areas with threatened species. My ‘non work’ days are also spent out and about amongst the plants too, which is where I have especially changed some of the things I do, and am forever working on being less impactful.
Practicing what I preach
Late last year a mate and I took a trip out to Arthur River in the wild west. It coincided perfectly with peak orchid season. I had all the locations of the rare and threatened orchids so I knew where to go. But we never. We decided to just hit up some formed tracks and hope for the best. We figured that those locations would be getting a huge amount of traffic and even though we were only two people, that was two peoples impact less if we didn’t go orchid hunting.
I would have totally loved to get some photos of some orchids I hadn’t seen in the wild, but I didn’t need to, there are plenty of photos I can look at. Plus, it is a bit like aurora shooting before the invention of ‘aurora predictions’, they are wwaaaayyyyyy better when you see them by accident or just pure luck.
Please don’t take this as a shot at you if you are someone who goes out hunting for orchids or what not. It’s a good wholesome hobby, better than smoking crack or ice or whatever it is the kids these days do. Just take this as a gentle reminder to be an ethical photographer with minimal impact, and always think about how we could do things better. None of us are perfect, but we can always find ways to have less impact, which also goes for me too!
Further reading and tips and tricks
If you got this far and haven’t tuned out to watch some tik tok reels on instagram yet, here are some super awesome resources which go further in depth about some of these points I have bought up.
Ethical Nature Photography in Tasmania – NRM South
Principles of Ethical Photography – Landscape Recovery Foundation
Tasmanian Field Naturalists – Quite often the Field Nats get to go on special excursions to reserves and places which aren’t always open to the public. Joining a group like this or the Threatened Plants Tasmania is a great way to be able to go and visit some of these places, and also contribute to their conservation while you are at it!
