Do you consider it cheating to call in animals to photograph them?

[Pedaling Fool]

Shutterbug, is that mountain lion the pic in the zoo?

[Rain Man]

Do you consider it cheating to call in animals to photograph them?

If you present the photo as entirely natural, as something that "just happened" in the wild (or that you quietly and patiently waited on) with the photographer merely an observer not a part of the photo and the animals unstaged, but rather wild and natural, ... then yeah, it's cheating.

So, I suppose the question has as much to do with the context and caption that presents the photo to the public.

RainMan

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[kanga]

i am honestly confused why people even give a $hit about this? it's like getting worked up over whether one touched all the white blazes.

[notBillyBob]

No, it's not cheating. TP goes over, although the rest of the people in my house puts it under. Games people play.

[Shutterbug]

Shutterbug, is that mountain lion the pic in the zoo?

The mountain lion picture was taken at the desert museum in Tucson, AZ.

[Alligator]

The mountain lion picture was taken at the desert museum in Tucson, AZ.

Well if they are stuffed like in a museum then you aren't calling them anyway. Whoever stuffed that cat did an awesome job. The photo is nice too.

[beakerman]

If you're not taking photos fo Nat Geo and presenting them as a natural occurance then no.

By the same token I don't hink waiting by a dead animal for a vulture to come along is cheating either..not sure who would want a pic of a vulture eating a dead something but to each his own.

My TP sits on top of the counter...the holder broke. Now a real awkward question is when at home do you bunch or fold...

Now that i have implanted that image inyour mine i bid you good day.

[weary]

A few birds will respond to calls, but "calling in" most wild things is difficult. Moose being dumb -- and curious critters -- sometime respond to even my amateur calls. But I've yet to see or hear of a bear call. And deer respond most easily during breeding season to the rattling of antlers, though I never found it easy to do, even when I used to hunt with a rifle.

Even with luring devices getting good wildlife photos is a complicated task requiring a lot of patience and photographic skill. Otherwise expect to spend a lot of time producing pictures of animal butts disappearing into the woods and underbrush.

I've often shown a series of slides of a deer in Baxter Park coming out of the bushes, looking curious, and then disappearing again. I usually pause for a long second or two and then click on the last slide -- one showing my kids feeding the deer a slice of bread.

I tried that once at a school function. A teacher blew my joke before I got to the last slide by exclaiming the pet name she had given the deer when it was a fawn.

I later learned she once had been married to a Baxter Park ranger and had spent several years in the park and often tamed wildlife, a practice now frowned upon by park managers.

Weary

[JAK]

3 squares, separate into individual squares, stacked at 60 degree offsets. Not 30 degrees. 60 degrees. There is a difference because the serrated edge is different than the non-serated edge. 30 degree offset is just being careless.

[ATBuddy]

Why on Earth would you hang toilet paper off your mountain bike?!?

And just to be morbidly curious, in front or behind WHAT?

Oh, and for the OP - nah. Not unless you are advertising that you spent days, weeks, months in the wild to get the shot and as such, deserve ever so much more so money for your pictures.

lol nooooo, they were asking how you hang your toilet paper at home.

Well if they are stuffed like in a museum then you aren't calling them anyway. Whoever stuffed that cat did an awesome job. The photo is nice too.

lol, that's a real live mountain lion in an enclosure, not a stuffed one. It's called the Sonoran Desert Museum but its really like a zoo.

[Jack Tarlin]

I don't see anything wrong with attacting their attention by making sounds.

But I sure wouldn't try and lure them closer or "call them in" with food, especially at a shelter/campsite location. Doing this can be dangerous with some animals (bears, obviously); it will also encourage the animals to lose their natural wariness of man and may get them to identify humans or certain locations with food; this usually ends badly for the animal.

[TheYoungOne]

Calling is OK, baiting would be bad.

Everytime I want to get a perfect shot of a white-tail deer, I just make a quick sound. Everytime the deer freezes and looks in my direction

[Turtle Feet]

Let me repeat the question in English for everyone. "Do you think its cheating to use a game caller, meaning a thing that makes noise to attract predators. So Do you you think its cheating to use one of those in order to attract a predator to be able to capture of photo of one instead of just hoping to see one without bringing one to you??????

OK, don't flame me for this but...

As part of the 'no trace' ethics, it's not acceptable to create a disturbance that would cause an animal to do anything out of it's normal course of activities, ie. getting close enough to a bull moose to get him to look up from his aqua grass to catch that awesome shot.

I enjoy viewing wildlife and I do feel guilty if in the process of photographing or just viewing, I've created that disturbance and they fly, run, or crawl away. That's just me.

I feel like my walking through their world is intrusion enough, I try my best not to interfere. But cheating? Not sure that's what I would call it, more like lacking respect for them.

I'm just sayin' ....

TF

[kayak karl]

here hiker, hiker, hiker. here hiker, hiker, hiker. i got a snicker bar.

[Pedaling Fool]

So throwing rocks at a moose that had is head down in the water is against LNT...I really suck at this LNT stuff

[Pedaling Fool]

Calling is OK, baiting would be bad.

Everytime I want to get a perfect shot of a white-tail deer, I just make a quick sound. Everytime the deer freezes and looks in my direction

Ahh...so I wasn't cheating; I was baiting...is that a bad thing

[bloodmountainman]

OK, don't flame me for this but...

As part of the 'no trace' ethics, it's not acceptable to create a disturbance that would cause an animal to do anything out of it's normal course of activities, ie. getting close enough to a bull moose to get him to look up from his aqua grass to catch that awesome shot.

I enjoy viewing wildlife and I do feel guilty if in the process of photographing or just viewing, I've created that disturbance and they fly, run, or crawl away. That's just me.

I feel like my walking through their world is intrusion enough, I try my best not to interfere. But cheating? Not sure that's what I would call it, more like lacking respect for them.

I'm just sayin' ....

TF

That was a nauseating PC post! Walking through "their world is intrusion enough" Oh brother!!!!!

[IronGutsTommy]

its not cheating if you tell the critter you still feel the need to see other animals

[Turtle Feet]

That was a nauseating PC post! Walking through "their world is intrusion enough" Oh brother!!!!!

To each his own bro', but I'll be happy to hold your head while you puke.

[Turtle Feet]

its not cheating if you tell the critter you still feel the need to see other animals

Now THAT'S funny!