Do photographers inadvertently harass marine life?
- Thread starter Alaskan Scuba Dude
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You all need to recalibrate your sarcasm sensors.
SMH
Blackcrusader
Contributor
Go Pros take nice photo's even when the object is distant. They cannot zoom in as they have a fixed lens. I have an Olympus TG6 but use that for close up and macro shots. To get a shot that makes you look like you are right next to the fish you have to be right next to the fish lol I get crap for this shot by people claiming I am too far away from my dive buddy. Which was the point of this photo in the first place. No way to zoom into those fish.
PatW
Contributor
Like most things, it depends. Often, just approaching a fish, squid, octopus etc will bother them and any diver can do that.
I am a photographer and I try to not disturb the marine life. For one thing, the less disturbed they are, the more natural the shot.
For fish, I often watch the fish and try to figure out where they are going. Then I go there first and let them approach me. That way, I can get a much better shot than if I chased them and got the fish butt shot.
For morays, I never touch them. For big green morays, I tend to approach slowly. If they start kinda twitching, I take it that they are uncomfortable. I find that if I back off a bit and wait, they will settle down. And then I approach and if they twitch again, I repeat. Usually after a couple of reps, they get bored and let me take shots as close as I want.
And then there are some fish that are hard to get shots of. Parrotfish generally take off just when you get into camera range and they are pretty alert. They don’t seem bothered because they go just a little ways and settle down. But they have that space envelope that they want and that is that.
And often, I look at nice critters or fish and realize that the shot just is not there. So I leave things alone. But that takes experience and discipline.
I am a photographer and I try to not disturb the marine life. For one thing, the less disturbed they are, the more natural the shot.
For fish, I often watch the fish and try to figure out where they are going. Then I go there first and let them approach me. That way, I can get a much better shot than if I chased them and got the fish butt shot.
For morays, I never touch them. For big green morays, I tend to approach slowly. If they start kinda twitching, I take it that they are uncomfortable. I find that if I back off a bit and wait, they will settle down. And then I approach and if they twitch again, I repeat. Usually after a couple of reps, they get bored and let me take shots as close as I want.
And then there are some fish that are hard to get shots of. Parrotfish generally take off just when you get into camera range and they are pretty alert. They don’t seem bothered because they go just a little ways and settle down. But they have that space envelope that they want and that is that.
And often, I look at nice critters or fish and realize that the shot just is not there. So I leave things alone. But that takes experience and discipline.
Haha! I always think of this when I see turtles and angel fish just going to town on sponges, etc. Oh sure, I'm not supposed to touch anything, but they're biting huge chunks out of it! LOL!
FWIW - I shoot video. As soon as the creature changes its behavior, I'm done with it. I don't chase stuff, but I do follow it. There's a difference. But if something (like an eel) starts backing into its hole, I'm out of there. The point is to see them and shoot them. It's up to the creature how long I stick around or how close I get.
kaylee_ann
crazy diver
So, apparently I was dead wrong on the photography part. I assumed bc a lot of pictures I’ve seen had a macro/zoom lens. Sorry everyone. But I still believe photographers don’t intentionally get all up in an animal’s space for a perfect shot.
They don't.... think of like a light foggy morning. Everything looks clear close by but the further away you look the foggier it appears. It's not actually foggier there but you are looking through more and more suspended water in the air which makes it look that way. Same thing underwater, More and more suspended material in the water has a cumulative effect making long distance photos underwater difficult and hazy in the best of water conditions. Zoom lenses are really only useful for macro photography to magnify really little creatures. You still have to get really close to eliminate the suspended particulate and not actually touch anything which is why buoyancy control is paramount to being a responsible photographer.
To the original post... irresponsible divers harass marine life... and some of those divers have cameras. Like every UW photographer I've known I've taken thousands of pictures underwater and I've never touched a creature that didn't touch me first (occasional shark, grouper, octopus etc).
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