• RAB Imaging
    • Portfolio
    • Gallery List
    • Search Archive
    • Lightboxes
    • Cart
  • Search
  • About

RAB's Tip Pad

~ Photographing History, Aviation and People

RAB's Tip Pad

Tag Archives: captive

Wild or Captive?

05 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Rick A. Brown in Shooting

≈ Comments Off on Wild or Captive?

Tags

captive, controversy, photo, photography, wild, wildlife

This post is considerably more issue related than most of my posts have made lately. It is inspired by an opportunity I think is on my horizon to photograph an animal in the wild that doesn’t always happen.

The issue in question, is it better to photograph an animal in the wild than in captivity? I’ll say right up front, my opinion is that it’s definitely “better” to photograph wild.

A Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a dead Ring-necked Duck hen at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. (Rick A. Brown)This is a wild Red-tailed Hawk image, it has a female Scaup or Ring-necked Duck

However, I do feel there is a place for captive shots. I do feel the photographer has the obligation to consider the conduct of those caring for the animals to determine if these are ethical shots to make. Admittedly, I was once less enlightened on this matter, although, I never did believe in blanket use of captive regardless of conditions.

A Red-tailed Hawk (CAPT) landing. (Rick A. Brown)For comparison purposes this is a captive Red-tailed photo, this is a film image compared to the previous digital image also.

I feel that the place for the captive photos comes from the fact that many species would hardly appear in print if it wasn’t for photos made in captivity. This lowers awareness of the species in the public, which I feel is a negative.

I can certainly, understand all of the negatives associated with captive photos. Today, my stance is that animals should only be photographed in captivity when they are in captivity for conservation, rehabilitation, research, or education. The fee you pay should be part of funding the cause. I once photographed captive wildlife under other circumstances, but will not do so going forward. The captive Red-tailed Hawk pictured above was part of an educational program.

The final image is of a wild Bobcat, an animal I initially thought I’d only be able to photograph in captivity, but have been able to photograph in the wild a few times.

A Bobcat (Lynx rufus) hunting at William L. Finley NWR. (Rick A. Brown)

♣ Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

♣ My e-book

Insects in a Flash

♣ Another great Stuck in Customs Product

Discover the Art of Photography

♣ Galleries

    Your PhotoShelter xml feed is broken. Remove all non-alphanumeric characters in your image or gallery descriptions in PhotoShelter. Remove all quotes, brackets, dashes, basically anything that isn't a number or letter. If that doesn't solve your problem, contact PhotoShelter and tell them your gallery xml contains errors.

♣ RSS RAB's Tip Pad

  • Floofie and the Secret of Ptolemy April 12, 2019
    Recently I shot with Kira Floofie for a portfolio development shoot at Cobalt Studios. This is a quick look at …Continue reading »
  • Automotive Lightpainting August 30, 2018
    I recently ran an automotive light painting experiment and just posted a video about doing it. 
  • Second Saturday: Veterans’ Day 2017 November 13, 2017
    For today’s blog I wanted to show you all the fun I had at the Veterans’ Day Second Saturday at …Continue reading »
  • Secret Code Map October 30, 2017
    I recently completed a video for B-17 Alliance Foundation. Today’s blog presents the video with some voice over describing the …Continue reading »

Blogroll

  • Laura Crawford Williams
  • Madras A2A X
  • Moose Peterson's Aviation Photography
  • Nature and Photography
  • The Smaller Majority

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Rick's Main Site

  • Moose's Photos

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.