Do you guys shoot insects dead or alive?

If it looks like an interesting picture, I'll take shots of already dead subjects, but don't kill them just in order to photograph them. I don't see anything wrong with refrigerating one in order to slow it down, and then releasing it alive, however.

I supose it comes down to an ethical debate. And not the ethics of the killing the insects part. Knowingly faking a photo and presenting it as real life.

I know it is done in other photography.... zoo shots passed off as wild Africa... or anywhere else. Nothing wrong with zoo shots..... except for passing them of as real. Some famous "nature shows" are guilty of using footage of zoos for "wildlife shots"

I saw a photo the other day on "imagekind" (but it doenst matter where, it could have been smugmug.... flickr... whatever.) of a fox against a red forested background, that I'm sure was taken with a wide angle lens, and the foxes head was full frame...... which looked "stuffed" by that I mean the fox looked like it was stuffed. There was something just not right about the eyes. Coupled with the fact the photographer must have been within inches. Totally possible, I don't doubt, but the photo looked fake, very. My initial reaction was not "look how close he got to that fox" it was "boy that looks fake" But the person was saying it was real in the description. I don't want to commit libel, so I won't show it to you.... not that I could find it again. Plus it's not really the point.

The point is taking a pic of a dead but and passing it off as alive, is just so wrong. Despicable even. Nothing wrong with taking a pic of a dead bug, and saying here is a dead (X) ... but to pass it off as real... total BS.....sorry that is how I feel. Mush like how I feel about aforementioned zoo "wildlife" shots. Some people may think I'm comparing apples to oranges, but I think they are similar ethical boundaries.


I will agree with archer, about the refrigerator. Not unethical, even from a humane or genuine article standpoint. There are always tricks you can do without crossing ethical borders.

I caught a National Geographic program awhile back that not only admitted that some of their footage is not actually from the wild, but showed how they did it.

I have since seen some fast passing small print at the beginning of their programs that says not all shots were done in the wild.

I was shocked, but I guess someone caught them out and they had to admit it finally.