Recently, a video on the streets of Shangqiu, Henan Province, where a kingfisher's mouth inserted into a billboard was used as a woodpecker, sparked a heated discussion on the Internet. The video shows an ordinary kingfisher with its beak inserted into a billboard on the side of the road, its body hanging motionless in mid-air until passers-by pull it out. The video sparked a buzz online.
Nandu reporter noted that many popular science bloggers and wildlife enthusiasts reprimanded video shooters for posing. In today's expanding wildlife photography community, how to identify wildlife photography as posing? How to properly capture the momentary beauty of wildlife? What principles should be followed when photographing wildlife? Zhao Guangsheng, director of the Guangzhou Nature Observation Association, answered the above questions in an exclusive interview with Nandu reporters.
Truly good works require patience and willpower
Nandu: When did you start your wildlife photography career? What made you choose to record various moments of wildlife?
Zhao Guangsheng: I began to record birds with my camera in 2008. Before that, I just took students to watch birds with telescopes, but then I found that only observing with telescopes did not meet our needs, and we needed to use cameras to record the details of birds and some moments of their lives. I believe that there are many colleagues who are very similar to my original intentions.
Zhao Guangsheng introduces his camera and shooting works (Photo/ Zhao Guangsheng)
Nandu: What principles do you generally need to follow during wildlife photography?
Zhao Guangsheng: First of all, the interests of wild animals should always be higher than the results of photography. The second is to maintain a safe distance from the wildlife and try to prevent the animal from detecting the presence of the photographer. The third is not to lure, not to drive, and to restore the beautiful moments of animals without interfering with their lives.
The last point is that the reproductive information of the animals cannot be revealed, so as not to cause a bunch of shooting and interfere with the reproduction of animals. In previous years, for example, owls had bred in trees, attracting a large number of people. I was photographing an owl as a nocturnal animal being awakened during the day by human activity so that it could not rest, and the look in the eyes that peeked out of the nest to see us was very frightened but helpless.
The collared owl under Zhao Guangsheng's lens (Photo/ Zhao Guangsheng)
Nandu: What difficulties have you encountered in the process of photographing wildlife?
Zhao Guangsheng: It can be said that real wildlife shooting is full of difficulties. Because the areas where wild animals live are mostly far from human settlements, it is common for us to trek through mountains and rivers for filming. I was once bitten by a mosquito during a shooting, and went directly to the hospital because of allergies after going down the mountain; once when shooting in Sri Lanka, I was bitten by an ant a lot of holes, and when I went down the mountain, I found that the white T-shirt that was close to me was stained several pieces red, and the whole person looked like I had been shot several times; another time was in Jiulian Mountain, Jiangxi, where we squatted in the mountains in the heavy rain to guard the spotted kingfisher for a whole day, and we couldn't shoot it, and finally when we went down the mountain, we also crawled down with a rolling belt. Later, the photo of the spotted kingfisher was taken after a colleague squatted for a full month. Therefore, if you want to shoot real wildlife photography, you need good patience and strong willpower to get it.
Zhao Guangsheng photographing birds in the mountains (Photo/ Zhao Guangsheng)
Posing can easily cause injuries or even death to wild animals
Nandu: Do you think the incident is suspected of posing for the video "Kingfisher's mouth inserted into a billboard and is used as a woodpecker"?
Zhao Guangsheng: I think the possibility of posing is relatively large. In fact, birds have very developed vision, and can quickly judge and avoid obstacles at a long distance, so under normal circumstances, they will not hit this billboard. It can be said that the common kingfisher's mouth inserted into the reed stalk and billboard on the Internet is basically impossible in the case of the bird's autonomous activity. We see birds hitting glass more often because the glass is colorless and transparent, and birds can't tell very well if there are glass obstacles in front of them.
Another point is that after the birds hit the obstacle at high speed, they will enter a coma, which is manifested by the eyes being closed and unable to move. Like the kingfisher in the video who can fly away immediately after being "rescued", it makes me even more suspicious that this is a posed farce.
This "tree frog umbrella" taken by an Indonesian photographer and once popular on the Internet has been confirmed as a posing shot
Nandu: What are some common posing methods for wildlife photos or videos?
Zhao Guangsheng: It is common to induce by placing food, such as putting bread worms and fixing them with glue, pins, etc., waiting for birds to eat; using cloth to cover the eyes of spotted doves and luring some birds of prey such as kestrels to hunt; and dragging the limbs of frogs and lizards with thin lines to make them appear in the posture imagined by the photographer. In addition, in order to photograph the cubs in the animal nest, some people will deliberately destroy the shelter around the nest such as leaves and weeds.
A chestnut-headed warbler holding an insect in Zhao Guangsheng's lens (Photo/ Zhao Guangsheng)
Nandu: What are the harms of posing for wildlife?
Zhao Guangsheng: Posing is actually very harmful to wild animals. First of all, the photographer needs to capture their intended subject, then in the process of capture will cause wild animal injuries or even death, more common is that non-professionals in the control of birds, because the posture is not correct easy to cause the bird wings to break; some stress-response wild animals will be "scared to death" in the process of being controlled by humans.
In addition, the destruction of the surrounding environment of the nest is easy to make the animals abandon the nest and abandon the baby, and at the same time greatly increase the insecurity of the animals and interfere with the normal activities of the animals.
There is still a lack of laws restricting posing in China
Nandu: What do you think about the current controversy over posing?
Zhao Guangsheng: The popularity of short video platforms and social media has given the posing photographers enough audience. Because everyone wants to see a gimmick, and the posing meets the needs of these audiences. But overall, it's also a good thing to note that the community of wildlife photography enthusiasts is slowly growing. It shows that people are more concerned and willing to record the wild animals around them.
A crowd of spotted ibises was photographed in Tianhe Park last year
Nandu: For the restriction of posing chaos, are there any relatively mature laws and regulations or policies at home and abroad that can be used as a reference?
Zhao Guangsheng: In some wildlife photography competitions organized by international organizations, the punishment for posing works is very strict. If it is found that there is a posing problem, the photographer will be banned or even permanently blacklisted; some of the photography competitions held in our country do not accept the work of shooting bird nests, because the organizers hope to reduce people's demand for bird nest photos through this restriction, so as to achieve the purpose of protecting birds. However, in China, there is still a lack of relevant laws to restrict the act of posing for wild animals.
Nandu: What other suggestions do you have for restricting posing?
Zhao Guangsheng: Mainly in two aspects. On the one hand, it is hoped that the relevant departments will punish the illegal acts of harming wild animals in accordance with the law, especially the shooting of protected animals needs to be strictly restricted and regulated; on the other hand, it is necessary to increase publicity and enhance the awareness of protection in the hearts of wildlife photography enthusiasts.
Here, I would also like to appeal to wildlife photography enthusiasts to remember their original intentions. Remember that the purpose of the shooting is to let people know about the beautiful creatures that coexist with us on the earth, to awaken people to respect nature, love nature, and protect biodiversity, not as a capital for personal ostentation.
Written by: Nandu reporter Chen Zhuorui
Photo: Chen Zhuorui Zhao Guangsheng