Landscape Photography Magazine have just published a new Really Right Stuff Sponsored Interview in their latest (no. #68) October issue. The interview was a great opportunity to talk a little bit about how I transitioned into a full time professional Nature Photographer and also my own ethics and thoughts on Nature Photography. Interview Excerpt Below:
In your opinion, how vital is integrity in the field of landscape photography?
Integrity is critical if we are to be honest with the viewers and honest with ourselves. When we look at a photograph we expect – or at least hope – it is real and not a digital creation. I personally believe in rewarding the skill of the photographer in the field and not the skill of the retoucher in front of a computer. Nowadays, literally anything is possible with digital manipulation in post-production. Multi-image composites are commonplace and are frequently presented to the viewer – often through social media – as ‘captures of nature’. Whilst it is fine to do this sort of manipulation I find it disingenuous not to disclose it. Nature photography should be about capturing what we find in the field, and not creating it on a computer. The latter is digital art in my book.
When I see images that are clearly composites being used to market workshops to exotic locations, that really irks me. Participants on those trips are going to expect to see that scene and are unaware that it is a fabrication. Our integrity as photographers is all we have to stand behind. That’s not something I wish to compromise.
The full interview is available for free on the Landscape Photography Magazine website.
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 