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 p.2 #1 · Nature First — The Alliance for Responsible Nature Photography | |
gdanmitchell wrote:
That matches my perspective. I've been traveling through and photographing the Sierra for a long time. (Yes, that long — back before things like wilderness permits existed.) Back then the concern was that not enough people knew about the Sierra backcountry and shared a concern for protecting it. This was back when we contended with stuff like the following:
- a proposal from Disney (!) to turn Mineral King into a ski area.
- a state proposal to put in an all-year highway across the range (and the JMT) to Mammoth Lakes south of Yosemite.
In those days, it was important to, for example, specifically identify the places that were under threat of development in order to build support for protecting them. And back then — no internet! no Google! no Instagram! — the reach and shelf life of most public sharing were not that great. You might write someone a letter, perhaps give a talk to some group.
There are some analogs today. For example, as Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments have been threatened, some people have used carefully selected imagery and stories to increase the awareness of what could be lost. On balance, in cases like those, presenting visual information about these places seems to be worth the risk given the immediate threat.
On the other hand, we have to realize that the new "sharing economy" — with its huge reach, tagging and organizing of everything, and powerful searching — leverages even somewhat innocuous sharing of the sort that had little effect a few decades ago. It now does have an effect that goes much farther and reaches folks who too often use the info in unfortunate ways. (I once innocuously shared a photograph of a less-known and fragile feature in a US national park... and the replies included a bunch of photographs of people doing things to the feature that threatened it existentially. That was a shock, and another reason for my own change of heart about sharing too much.)
True, that does happen.
Two facts remain, though.
1. Our inability to make things perfect doesn't argue against trying to make them better.
2. The "Mt. TakeYourPick" (or "Mt. TakeYourPic?") response aside, decreasing unsustainable attention on thus-far-not-popular places is more good than bad.
It is also a strategy that can be used selectively and thoughtfully. For example, location could given be "Northern Utah" or "Eastern Sierra" or "Canadian Rockies" rather than some specific spot. And this is likely more important in the cases of places that are currently not well-known and which cannot sustain a lot more user impact. That's different than identifying your latest Half Dome photograph as being in Yosemite Valley. ;-) (And, you could still choose to share, directly and in person, with a small number of trusted friends whose values convince you that they share your concerns and will act accordingly.)
Finally, there's more to this than not naming places. A visit to the "Nature First" site can explain more.
Take care,
Dan...Show more →
I'm not that far behind you Dan. I've been going to the high Sierra's since I got my drivers license (born & raised in San Francisco) and I remember when they were still throwing hot timbers down waterfalls in Yosemite to make the falls glow. You can still see the falls glow if you get there for a couple of times a year, but it's lit up by NATURE, not by a forest ranger with a pile of hot timbers. Just as I drove past you after taking some shots last fall above Mono Lake, that's part of my annual photo calendar since I was a teenager back in the early 80's and I didn't like bears so I slept in my 1983 Renault Le Car. Fortunately, I'm 5.7, otherwise that would have been very difficult!
I too am very concerned about what is happening in Utah with Grand Staircase. It seems like we made some giant leaps forward in recent years by preserving more lands and increasing the number of National Parks and Monuments so these glorious places are held in their splendor forever, but the last 2 years, we've made some some equally giant leaps backwards, all within a half term of one's presidency. It may be up to US at a time when people are thinking with their pocket books FIRST that we remind them through magnificent photos that these areas of the United States still exist, they're treasures given to us by the GODS, and if we DESTROY these places for financial gain (i.e. less taxes or other bullcrap that the politicians are dishing out) they will never return to their prior glory!!! Not just Grand Staircase, but all of our federal parks, monuments, and lands are in grave danger.
Just look what happened in some of the busiest of National Parks when the government shut down, but they didn't shut down the National Parks. People just threw garbage everywhere, they spray painted rocks, scrambled on endangered grounds, and made a major mess! Again, the POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY by showing people the beauty our country possesses will hopefully keep these few and far-between places free of evil-doers. Bill
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I just published an article on my blog about environmental protection and landscape photography, hoping it will help bringing more awareness to this issue.