Life in your Hands

For me it depends....
I think if it were an animal eating another, I wouldn't get involved because it's the "circle of life" (cue Elton John on piano here.....) and who knows how long the predator/or it's young has gone w/out food? What else is affected by my involvement?

If it's a something alone in distress (say the dragonfly or a deer stuck out on the ice) I would drop the camera try and help but only if it didn't affect my safety first.

My hunny says if he's eating it, no one should interfere so feel free to set up the tripod an shoot....you have his permission! :D
There ya have it!

Ever hear of roadkill stew? mmmmmmm :yuck:

I always thought roadkill would make an interesting image. Never really gave that one an effort, but maybe one day. Has anyone here tried that?

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Originally Posted by jjeling

Ever hear of roadkill stew? mmmmmmm :yuck:

I always thought roadkill would make an interesting image. Never really gave that one an effort, but maybe one day. Has anyone here tried that?

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What??? Eaten road kill? :eek:
No JJ ... I know this hard to accept ... but Squirrel's are not the staple diet of most ordinary humans!! http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/home/smf/S...ssic/groan.gif
You been hanging with your snakes too much me thinks kid! http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/home/smf/S...sic/nahnah.gif

Surely you have sun dried road kill in Aussie.:p

On a more serious note. The debate is whether nature should take it's coarse or we should assist a creature in distress. I was shooting a river yesterday and a plastic bottle drifted past on it's long journey to the gyres in the oceans of our world. The plastic in these gyres kill every thing in the marine food chain and will never be removed from the environment. My question is . Does anyone out there pick up any plastic they come across when out shooting?

cheers
EJC

Ooooooh....that's a good one!

A very provocative thread.
My 2 largest passions on this earth are photography and my love for animals. I would absolutely 'save' any animal I could provided I would not put myself in real jeopardy before getting the shot. If I could have the best of both worlds I'd shoot first and save later.

A long time ago my wife and i were in Indonesia and a goat on a cord on the side of the road was tied to a pole and in an effort to get loose walked round and round the pole until it was almost strangling itself. My wife and i who passed by the goat in a Rickshaw made the driver stop and untangled the goat. We had cameras with us, and did NOT take 1 frame and felt great for helping.

I do realize all this helping is against Star Trek's prime directive (lol) but I'm a pretty big animal welfare dude. So for me, the choice is helping the animal if I can 100% of the time over getting the shot.

I am not exactly an out in the wilds shooter but if I were to say witness a mountain lion take down a baby deer, and it was safe to photograph, I would. If an animal was in distress due to man caused hazards, and I could help it, I would. I would not be inclined to photograph an animal in the throws of death struggling to escape a preventable and man made situation. If it was to say document water birds in an oil spill or a duck with one of those plastic six can rings around its neck, definitely yes. Sometimes shock value is the only way to get reaction and action.

Captain Kirk broke the prime directive weekly, mostly to regrettable results especially for ensign number 4 or whichever it is. :)

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Originally Posted by EJC

Surely you have sun dried road kill in Aussie.:p

On a more serious note. The debate is whether nature should take it's coarse or we should assist a creature in distress. I was shooting a river yesterday and a plastic bottle drifted past on it's long journey to the...

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Something like that, I would remove; it's man made and doesn't belong there in the first place. If it's plastic, why isn't it being recycled?! (My first thought, lol.) Recycling is pretty big in Edmonton (something like ~60% of all garbage gets recycled), so I think that would be a common response here. I can't remember if I've come across any plastic though....

as always in nature photography, i use the motto 'take only pictures, leave only footprints', so if i see any garbage littered, i take it with me.

Last year we had some robins nesting in the tree out front about 4 feet off the ground. I would check on them almost every day...look in the nest when the parents weren't around and watch them with binoculars off the deck....

One day I came home and the nest had been turned on it's side and all three of the little naked baby robins fell out and were laying on the ground. They were still alive but not for much longer by the looks of them. I put the 2 squirmiest ones back in the nest, and righted the nest as best as possible. I left the other baby on the ground as he looked dead then I called my spouse who told me I should put the other one back in the nest and let the robin parents deal with it. So I did...I remember the poor little guy was so cold and wet but it turns out it was still alive after all. When Mike got home, he secured the nest to the tree branch with a bunch of plastic tie downs with the 3 babies still in it and the parents attacking him!

Well, the babies lived, grew, fleged and we never saw them again....we felt pretty good about that! :highfive:

I'm hoping they come back again this year so I can take lots of pictures!

I guess we intervened in a good way. :)