Verhaltenscodex für Naturfotografen

Signs are invisible! I’m pretty sure, an important message can make the material it is printed on invisible. Or let´s put it that way: We are overloaded with signs, so our brain sorts them out. But, we take pictures of wildlife because we love it, right? With every step we take into the field, we potentially step on someone, we densify the ground, we give a bad role model for others who are watching us, and we stress our own boundaries so that we might go a bit further next time.

Please don’t. My game is, everything off the path is lava! I won’t break branches, cut leaves, or even feed animals for a good picture. This has to do with reasonability, integrity, and respect. I’m sure there is a hashtag for that. Let’s find out…. #respectnature maybe. Don´t chase, fix, catch, or torture animals for the sake of a picture. You´ll find pics of animals on a hand on picmybug.com. The horned crab was caught and handed over by a nice lady from the restaurant we were sitting in (and hell she was good at catching these fast crabs!). The mantis was scarily fixed on me, I guess it was a crazy male (that also happened with a giant jumping spider male once). These pictures are exceptions, I never try to get wild animals on my hands. That put them and potentially also me at risk.

Signs have important messages for us!