Impacts of Photography

Some of the things that come to mind when you think of photography include beautiful landscapes, wildlife, senior portraits, family portraits, and advertisement. However, while these things are all important, photography has some more important purposes. Photography is one of the main medias in which we see our world. Photography certainly has great benefits but it can also be harmful.

Most people don't have the opportunity to travel the world. For example, the average New Yorker would never have a chance to go to the Arctic and see the melting ice and how it's effecting the wildlife. Photography allows the images of this to be captured and reproduced in magazines for mass production. The majority of people have access to many of the worlds problems because of photography.

While photography serves many good purposes, it can also be harmful. Photography can especially be harmful to wildlife. A ton of money can be made by "that perfect wildlife shot." The monetary motivation drives irresponsible photographers to do harmful things to animals, such as baiting. Baiting is when food is placed in the preferred setting to draw the animal in. If the animal is baited to many times, it becomes dependent on that food. The animal is also more likely to travel into populated areas to get the more tasty food.

Perhaps even more harmful than baiting is interrupting feeding behaviors of young animals. While photographs of baby animals have high demand, acquiring them poses an incredible risk to the safety of not only the animal, but the photographer as well. Getting too close can cause in a defensive mother attacking the photographer. It could also disturb the feeding patterns and behaviors of the animals, which could lead to their death.

To become a good photographer, it is important to become educated in more things than just how to operate your camera and editing software. It is incredibly important to know the appropriate and safe things to do around wildlife. It's also important to show not only the beautiful scenes in our world, but also the less glamorous things.