Coming off of discussion here, should wildlife photos be allowed in future Best Photo of ZooChat competitions? I've added a poll here (that closes in December) in order to allow as many people to voice their opinion. I encourage you to leave your reason why or why not in a post here. Note that the option that wins on this poll may or may not actually determine the rules next year, I only wish to hear the opinion of as many ZooChatters as possible.
Maybe instead there should be a split into two different polls, one for wildlife and one for zoos-specific.
I would prefer the contest to be zoo specific but would also support two separate categories. Whenever I’m making pictures at a zoo, I am challenging myself to make them look as natural and not zoo-like as possible. It’s what makes great zoo photos stand out from good zoo photos. Tiger emerging from a wooded area into great light versus tiger sitting on a rock with chain link behind it. Quality of exhibit comes into play here too. And if you don’t have the best exhibit for the background, you hide it! You move to portraiture and detail shots. Stripes, paws, eyes, etc. Shooting in the wild also has its challenges of course. I’ve trekked through the Everglades and come back with nothing more times than I can count. Based on that, I feel like more weight is added to wild photos solely based on the opportunity to witness the moment. A mediocre image of a wild bald eagle is going to be looked at differently than a great photo of a bald eagle in captivity. Equal opportunity has to come into play as well. Are more people able to afford a week on safari or a day at the zoo? Should those photos be put up against each other? Should the safari photos be disregarded just because that person could afford it and others couldn’t? Those questions are why I believe zoo photos should be judged against other zoo photos and wild photos should be just against other wild photos.
My reasoning, from the other thread: I like seeing the wildlife photos, but this is zoochat, after all. There's dozens, if not hundreds, of websites that focus on wildlife photography and plenty of contests for it, but this is really the only topic-specific one where people can share zoo photos. Even on photo sharing sites, like flickr, photos taken at zoos are often looked down on and species-specific groups on there tend to say in their rules that captive photos aren't allowed. I intentionally chose to nominate a photo taken at a zoo.
If a photo is posted to a ZooChat gallery or album it should be considered for "The Best of ZooChat", regardless of whether it was taken in a zoo or in the wild. The very first line of the Forum Rules state, "Our goal is to provide a safe, fun and education place for our members to discuss zoos and animal conservation." Personally, I believe a good photo of an animal taken in its wild, natural environment contributes to the discussion of animal conversation as much as a good photo of an animal taken in a zoo does.
Frankly, if you want a fair competition, I think wildlife and zoo should be separate categories. Otherwise it will be difficult to impossible for zoo photos to compete.
