Tme for a "Ten Commandments For The Underwater Photographer?"

Its interesting how views polarise so easily/quickly.

They polarize because they are written to be polarizing. They paint a black and white picture for something that is far from black and white. And then what happens is, people focus on one or two rules they can especially argue about, which will make the whole thing a useless endeavor.

The MCS code of conduct on the other hand leaves a lot of room for people to find their own comfort area while still being ok. You dont have to be a saint.. we're not here to gain entrance into heaven, Just be responsible and aware. And I agree with Alex that most of us already do that. Sometimes you go a little over the edge, and you feel bad for weeks, months..even years. Thats all part of it. It means you still care. We need that wiggle room to function as humans.

Cor

ps: ive done quite a bit of diving with Newbert, and ive never seen any '3 picture' rule on his boat. You find it, it's yours. That doesnt mean people dont share. I quite like some of his regulars actually.

I did not intentionally right them to be polarizing. Over the years I have learned people tend to remember Bullet Points over Mission Statements. I knew there is no way to enforce them; there are no Scuba Police so they would always just be "Guidelines". So I thought why not error on the conservative side? Yes, they are mainly aimed at those new to diving and those new to taking a camera diving.

On a more esoteric line; for me a huge part of being awed by an image is the luck and perseverance it took to be at the right place at the right time, have the right equipment and then the skill to capture the moment. To me manipulating a subject is no different then cutting and pasting it in Photoshop and I have no interest in that.

This will be my last rant about the impact of touching, moving, whatever, a creature so you can get a better picture of it. I am not a biologist. Over the past 20yrs I have worked on many research projects as a volunteer dealing with everything from marine fish & coral husbandry to shark tagging. I am around PhD. Marine Biologist every week. I have never heard any of them say handling wild animals in nature is good for them. At best they say it May do minimal harm. Why risk any harm so you can win a flashlight in some competition! Of course if you are doing research, are one of the few who do actually publish fish ID books not I or anyone else is going to come after you for gently handling a creature. But that's what maybe 2% of the people with cameras underwater?

Rant over

For anyone interested in this subject it would be great to get "guidelines" you can live with. Replace "never" with "strive to", whatever, but come up with something short and to the point. For those who feel its ok to handle creatures it would be great if you could provide Specific verbiage that you could live with.

I think my goal will be to distill this thread down and post it at some other sites. (very tacky, I know) If some "laws/guidelines/text" can be found many can live with then maybe I will look into some kind of online Sign-Up Sheet or Petition to give people a chance to get involved.

Then go from there. If this all dies here and now at least it beat watching reruns.