Field ethics
The threshold for documenting a scenario is simple: where there is elevated risk to the safety of a location, subject, or environment at large, the absolute minimum disturbance necessary is employed – even if that means no capture at all. Sensitive taxa are especially considered in this rubric. Encounters are kept intentionally brief in an effort to minimise harm, and habituated specimens are favoured over truly wild ones in an effort to ensure wilderness remains just that.
Light
A large part of the work happens at the edge of visibility and necessitates specialist illumination. When ultraviolet (UV) or other excitation methods are used, this is rigorously documented in associated metadata, along with thorough radiometric testing before and as a routine part of deployment in the field. The general mandate is to use as little illumination as necessary for as brief a window as possible, at a deliberately low cadence. If it is possible for a photographic method to reduce the risk profile of a given encounter, it is exercised to the fullest possible extent.
Safety
Where guests are present for experiences, the utmost consideration is given to their safety and is intentionally structured such that this is the core tenet of all undertakings. Safety equipment provided is rated to comply with relevant standards such as those provided by AS/NZS 1337 which determines measures for safe occupational ophthalmological exposure in Australia and New Zealand, as well as ISO standards for the same abroad.
Post-production
Post-production forms a significant element of ensuring the captured material adequately and accurately reflects the reality of a moment that transpired. General best practice is employed, or where no prior best practice exists, experimental methods are developed to ensure results that are coherent to what the biology documented actually dictates. The images are intended as artistic representations of objective fact; that is, basic darkroom processes such as dodging/burning, white balance correction, and boosts to contrast or saturation are employed only as much as necessary to deliver reality in an aesthetically interesting way. Further depth on these processes is occasionally offered where relevant.
Publication & Disclosure
Disclosure of discoveries is intended as a documentation of unique or otherwise curious happenings in the living world, and present as thorough account of events as necessary to deliver relevant context. Where necessary, locations are deliberately obfuscated to ensure sensitive populations are not impacted as a follow-on consequence of this body of work. Greater informational rigour is available offline by request.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is occasionally used in the production of the material on this site, where and only where it provides objective benefit to documenting and communicating subject matter effectively. That is, quality-of-life procedural enhancements such as automated dust spot removal and image noise recovery are routinely used, or in cases where physically manipulating a scene is impossible at the time of capture, the removal of distractions (lamp posts, blades of grass, etc.) using tools such as those natively built into Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom after the fact. This does not include the use of such tools to fabricate or modify the contents of a scene’s subject material or its fundamental presentation, nor does it include enhancements beyond what was possible before these tools existed. That is, all imagery is authentic and an accurate reflection of events that actually occurred.