I have been wanting to photograph animals that I have been finding recently, like salamanders, snakes, insects, frogs, maybe even a cool plant or two. But I was unsure how to do this well. Most invertebrates and plants will be relatively easy, but animals that are faster to run and hide will be much more difficult, like snakes, lizards, and salamanders. Obviously I would want to avoid handling them (especially salamanders) but what should I do if the animal hides? Lifers and rarer animals I would especially want to photograph, but I also want it to be natural and ethical. Iâm not sure how I feel about posing the animal (it feels unnatural and Iâm not sure itâs ethical) but would moving the animal to a clearer spot be considered posing? And also, how could I photograph a venomous snake? I would love to find a venomous snake, especially if I can get a good photograph of it, but obviously I canât handle it so I canât do much to keep it from running away, and again I donât want to stress it. Also, how would I be able to do it from a safe distance?
I will be posting these photographs (especially ones of animals with bad reputation) on iNat and the Nextdoor Neighbor app. My goals with the Nextdoor app is to show my community the beautiful animals that they are too often portrayed as evil, dangerous, and disgusting creepy-crawlies and hopefully change some minds.
I am just wondering how others photograph wildlife and how to ethically do so. Any advice appreciated!
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What people consider âethicalâ when interacting with animals is going to vary from person to person, so this is very difficult to generalize to - youâll need to make your own decisions there.
A few thoughts:
Any photography of a wild animal in which the animal is aware that there is an observer focusing on them is likely to be stressful to some degree. In fact, the presence of a human walking anywhere likely slightly stresses hundreds of animals that we are totally unaware of as we interact with the world. So stressing an animal isnât a binary, but a continuum. The more intense the interaction, and the longer it is, the more stressful it is (in general). That said, animals experience stressors all the time - they can deal with some stress relatively well. So youâll have to decide whether you are comfortable inflicting some stress for the benefit of getting a picture.
If you can take a picture without causing an animal to flee, this is probably preferable, but doesnât mean that the animal isnât stressed (the response of some animals to threats is to freeze, meanwhile their heartrates and energy mobilization can spike to prepare for flight if needed).
Some specific suggestions:
For photographing salamanders, you can handle relatively safely with nitrile gloves or a ziploc bag. If you find them under cover, youâll need to move them before returning the cover object to its original location so they donât get squashed.
For venomous snakes, your best bet is to use a zoom lens if needed, and stay a full body length away. It is possible to safely handle venomous snakes (with tongs) if you are trained. If you are interested in this, you can google training classes. Handling venomous snakes really isnât necessary for basic pics though. Vipers (most venomous snakes youâd encounter in the US) usually stay pretty still and are some of the more cooperative photo subjects in that regards.
I personally generally try to photo without moving the animal if the pics will allow for an accurate ID in situ. If handling is needed to show a field mark, I may try to capture (if I can do so without injury) to allow more detailed photos. If I have an animal in hand, I might try to pose it since they are already stressed at that point assuming I think I can get a good pic. I generally try to make my interactions as brief as possible to limit stress.
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Thank you for this advice! I will definitely keep it in mind. I hadnât really considered that they would be stressed regardless of handling, handling would just heighten it. I will avoid handling when possible when photographing things. I went to a National Park that has a boardwalk so I wasnât able to get off the trail to handle even if I wanted to, but managed to photograph 7 snakes (including 4 pit vipers!). This was in the morning so they were all basking in the sun by streams. These were the best of the snakes we got, but I also got some of an owl, skink, and a macro of an orbweaver. My favorite is probably the Banded(?) Watersnake. They were all surprisingly close to the boardwalk so I could get decent photos of them.
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For snakes and invertebrates (I do a lot of flying insects, so my nature walks involve a lot of crouching in meadows swearing under my breath the the #$%#ing hoverfly wonât sit still) and other zippy things, I usually just take as many pictures as possible as quickly as possible and hope one comes out clearly. Especially for purposes of iNat identification, take a picture as soon as you get close enough that itâll be at all in focus â it might not be something youâd want to hang on your wall, but for a lot of things itâll still be identifiable. (And then other things you canât identify without a microscope and a doctorate in entomology.) If you have a zoom lens and/or a camera/phone that will let you do burst photography (automatically taking a bunch of shots in a row) that can help a lot. Iâll sometimes pick up chill, slow-moving insects like most hemiptera and bumblebees to get a better picture, but otherwise the animal is just going to be so stressed and squirmy that Iâm going to terrify it without actually getting a better picture.
I also recommend getting used to staying very still and waiting for the snake to poke its head out from behind the rock again, walking slowly and quietly, and going looking for reptiles and insects on nice sunny days when they might be out basking. Once something has gotten spooked and vanished under the underbrush, itâs usually just gone. But if you can spot the lizard out on the rock or the wasp all posed beautifully on that flower, you should have a chance of getting a good picture before it notices youâre there.
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Oh, these are beautiful! :-D
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Thank you so much!! I will definitely keep this in mind next time. I tried to get an owl flying away and it was definitely a moment of panic! This will be very helpful when I need to catch something like that again!!
[yoda] When dragonflies, you wish to photograph, patience you must cultivate. Patience, and fast shutter speed. [/yoda]
In other words, I hear ya. Also, itâs nice to see another obvious Tolkien fan on the forum. 
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Look for diurnal insects early in the morning before they become active. Or near dusk when theyâve settled in for the night. Iâm in Colorado right now and Iâve learned to look for roosting butterflies on sagebrush at dusk. when Iâm here visiting my son. Never see them on other plants here.
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Whats a good way to get snakes to sit still AFTER handling them? Most of the snakes I find are under cover, so itâs impossible to get a âniceâ shot. Also for salamanders, placing them on a moist surface, then putting the camera at surface/ground level works well for me.
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Hooks are preferable over tongs in the field, since with tongs itâs easy in the moment to apply too much pressure and injure the snake
Most snakes will stay still after a few minutes in a dark, contained environment, like under your hands or a hat. Iâve heard of people literally putting herps in an ice chest to slow them down, which works I guess but is super inhumane and should never be done. Ironically, racers donât often need to be posed once theyâve been in hand, since they usually have such a bad attitude that they will try and attack you instead of fleeing when you release them lol. And corns the archetypal ânice snakeâ usually wonât stop slowly crawling away (tho to be fair most of mine are cruised).
