Photography Values & Ethics

Bison Sunset, Bison bison

Yellowstone National Park, 2006

From doing shows I have found that people like to know that there are wild places still out there somewhere. That these wild places do still exist. It seems to give them comfort. Some people ask, "is this real?" What they are really asking is "did you use Photoshop?" My short answer is always "yes". Nearly everyone printing photos today uses Photoshop. My slightly longer answer is "my photographs are true to real life."

For some people modify in camera is fine but modify post production is not fair game. Photography is pure art. It is all interpretation. Each person's eye sees something different. There is not just one kind of photography or approach to photography. The whole question of image manipulation comes down to what you feel you want to convey with your photography. I once ran into a photographer who had a collection of animal eyes and sky’s that would be added to photographs to make something completely different. This seems like cheating, but it's one way of getting a great shot.

I photograph for fine art. In addition to fine art many of my wildlife photographs have editorial uses, which has a different set of ethics from fine art. Each photographer has their own set of ethics and each photographer needs to decide what their ethics are. Here is my list of ethics to assist you in coming up with your own list:

• I have a strong view that my photographs should have some sense of veracity. I use Photoshop to make the colors and mood look the way I remember them. I want to invoke the same feeling I had when I took the photograph while keeping true to real life.


• I don't add anything to my photographs.


• I do clone out litter or power lines from landscapes but I try to take them without these elements if I can.


• I do clone out sensor dust.


• I do composite images to make panoramas.