I’ve been sharing images of these Egyptian Nightjars quite often recently, even though they all come from only a couple of outings from a few months ago. I’ve spoken about this before, but when it comes to ethics in wildlife photography, it can be hard to decide on where to draw the line between what is acceptable versus what is being exploitative and disruptive.
Ideally, science and research would guide how we interact with wildlife, but our knowledge of many species is often too limited to make fully informed decisions. With these nightjars, I eventually chose to stop visiting them because I felt a lot of guilt about disturbing them during the day, which is their key time they get to rest before hunting at night. I was excited to have finally found and photographed them, but it also felt equally self-serving unless I were able to document them from farther distance and without infringing on their space.
I am not saying any of this to gain sympathy or claim the moral high ground. I just want to highlight that ethics in wildlife photography is rarely black and white a d there isn't a one-fits-all rule book to follow. It is a grey area that depends on the species, the situation and our own honest assessment of our goals and intentions.
All of this is to say that in wildlife photography, sometimes the best thing we can do is to know when to step away
