Ethics

Guiding Principles in Landscape Photogrpahy

I believe God created a world of beauty and vibrancy to tell us something about Himself, and as I seek to capture and share that creation in my photography, I also seek to be a good steward of it by preserving natural beauty for future generations to enjoy. Therefore, I prioritize minimizing the impact I have on the environment I’m photographing, which has several implications in how I handle myself when I’m out with my camera, how I present my work, and how I work photography into my life.

I follow leave-no-trace and leave-it-better-than-you-found-it practices when out photographing. This means travelling on established paths, not disturbing the local wildlife, leaving no waste (including food scraps) behind, protecting watersheds from pollution, following best practices and local regulations and guidance regarding human waste, and when possible removing signs of human presence others have left behind (litter, graffiti, and unsanctioned rock cairns).

I believe it’s important to be mindful of the impact of social media as well. Social media has the potential to lead to a great deal of “imitation” and can raise the profile of unfrequented locations. When I share images of wild or little-known places, I do not disclose locations that could be negatively impacted by large crowds of visitors who may not understand or follow leave-no-trace practices, and even consider ways to obfuscate particularly sensitive locations.

In addition to my impact on the local environment I’m photographing, I work to reduce the impact of my photography on the broader environment in the form of resource usage and emissions generation by combining purposes for photography trips as much as possible to reduce driving and air travel. I also do not engage in the sale of NFTs due to their extremely high energy use.