![]() When the bird has wet wings, it naturally opens them up so they will dry. The article says that one of the ways the cormorant fishermen get the cormorant birds to open their wings is to get the bird wet by putting it in the water or splashing a little water on the bird. Photo of cormorant fishermen, taken by the author – Jim Harmer The Article's Incorrect Accusation They were able to give me the real facts about this situation–much of it directly from the mouths of the cormorant fishermen themselves. Much of the information from this article comes from my friends and guides, Andy and Mia Beales, who live in Guilin and probably know the traditional cormorant fishermen better than anyone else in the photography world (they also happen to be the best photo guides in the business). I used the best guides in the business who helped me to get unrivaled access to the area, and I'm leading a workshop to photograph the cormorant fishermen in June 2016. Unlike the author of the article, I've actually spent time on the Li River in Xingping and have met and photographed several of the cormorant fishermen. I feel the need to respond clearly to the article, because the author said that those who photograph the cormorant fishermen should “lose the respect of their peers.” I'm one of those photographers. However, some of the examples are sensationalistic and… well… “just plain wrong.” (See what I did there?) Principally, the example of photographers who travel to China to photograph the cormorant fishermen. That isn't controversial, and I agree with many of the points in the article. I doubt any photographer disagrees with the premise of the article: don't do anything in photography that would destroy the habitat that we photograph. However, I strongly disagree with some of the points made by DL Cade in his article “ The Dark Side of Photography: When getting the ‘best' shot is just plain wrong” which was published both on Petapixel and the 500px blog. Photo by the author – Jim Harmerįirst of all, can I say that I love Petapixel and 500px? I'm a frequent reader of both blogs and we very often site their articles as sources as we discuss news topics on the Improve Photography Podcast. He no longer fishes commercially, but is proud of his family's heritage and loves sharing it with photographers. ![]() He's one of the last remaining traditional cormorant fishermen. ![]() This is Black Beard (yes, that's really what the locals call him).
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