Kookaburra

Raptor Domain March 2010

May I ask what's with the woman's face?

Ya got to be bloody kidding me! I'd rather put my money on that Hix was playing with the photo in Photoshop!

You're quite correct, although Chlidonias' suggestion is also quite possible given my predilection for sci-fi (and the Star Trek franchise in particular).

A number of my photos include people, I often use them to illustrate an activity or the scale of an enclosure. I don't usually ask them if they mind me sticking their faces on the internet and so in some cases I have distorted the faces to make them unrecognizable. If you look at the other photos I took at Raptor Domain, everyone else has been photoshopped in a similar way except the demonstrator.

Maybe I'm reacting unnecessarily, I don't know.

Well, SIM has stated that while he is relaxed towards photos showing zoo staff, photos of adult zoo guests are generally not allowed and children are absolutely forbidden. Many of my photos from the Cairns Night Zoo were removed from the album, based on that they included children with or around the animals. I understand SIM's point, but it was really hard to avoid capturing the children as the zoo was full of them and we were not allowed to wander around on our own as it was a late night program. The kids were just everywhere!

Here we have an adult person and a staff member of a zoo. I understand your thinking, but I also think that not only would SIM allow this photo unedited; if she saw the photo, this person would probably be very proud of it being here, almost as proud as of her job, which is not easy to get. I have uploaded thousands of photos, many of which had zoo staff, though of course the animals were always the focus.

I would not even upload photos that you feel are in need of such editing. The 'danger' is that the viewer forgets or ignores the beutiful animal in it and focuses on the distorted face and the possible reason why. To end this speech on a light note, I could have sworn that it was Daisy Duck holding that Kookaburra!

And of course now I read your comment again and realised that the person is a guest of the show. You clearly state that you did not toy with the demonstrator's face. Even so, I think this photo is acceptable (at worst in a grey area) but whether SIM agrees I don't know.

It probably is acceptable, but I wasn't too sure.

The point of this photo was to show the public being able to hold the kookaburras. As it was, this young lady was actually quite scared of the bird, and just after this photo was taken she held it at arms length, unhappy with the way it was looking at her!