Stuffed

[hdh]

Marcio Cabral lost his Wildlife Photographer award over placing a stuffed anteater in his picture. 

 

https://news.sky.com/story/wildlife-photographer-marcio-cabral-loses-prize-over-taxidermy-anteater-11348531

 

[Stephen Lloyd]

Wild suggests free, moving etc........ 

 

It's the same as putting a photo of statue in a portrait competition.

 

 

[Matt Ashmore]

I was reading about this on the BBC News page too http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43912583.  The bit I particularly likes is:

 

"Unfortunately, I do not have another image of the animal because it is a long exposure of 30 seconds and ISO 5000," Mr Cabral said.

 

Now I'm not a wildlife photographer, but I don't know how you would get an ant eater to stand still for 30 seconds.

[hdh]

17 hours ago, Matt Ashmore said:

I was reading about this on the BBC News page too http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43912583.  The bit I particularly likes is:

 

"Unfortunately, I do not have another image of the animal because it is a long exposure of 30 seconds and ISO 5000," Mr Cabral said.

 

Now I'm not a wildlife photographer, but I don't know how you would get an ant eater to stand still for 30 seconds.

The only two methods I can think of are  to shoot and stuff it or to cut the animal out of another picture.

 

[RedSnapper]

17 hours ago, Matt Ashmore said:

Now I'm not a wildlife photographer, but I don't know how you would get an ant eater to stand still for 30 seconds.

 

Long exposure for the sky / termites

Flash for the anteater

 

k

[Matt Ashmore]

11 hours ago, RedSnapper said:

 

Long exposure for the sky / termites

Flash for the anteater

 

k

 

Yes.. but surely unless it's a composite (meaning that the ant eater wasn't exposed for 30 seconds) the ant eater would move in the 30 seconds whether there's flash or not.

[Martin Carlsson]

@RedSnapper and @Matt Ashmore I think the evidence is stacked against him...

 

Several articles mentions that the RAW file (and the other RAW files before and after the disputed image) had been examined. Composites are not allowed and regardless, he claims it's a straight shot at 30s, ISO 5000 and using flash.

• The anteater was only present in one, not in any image(s) before or after. Sure it was a long exposure and the anteater could just have popped in and then disappeared quickly - indicates pretty rapid movements on it's behalf.
• Also five scientists (two mammal experts, one taxidermy specialist, one external South American mammals expert and one external anteater researcher) working independently all came to the same conclusion - that the anteater in the winning image is/was identical to the taxidermy anteater that just so happens can usually be found at the visitors' centre at the entrance to the reserve where the winning image was taken.
• He had been visiting the National Park for three years to get the right conditions to be able to photograph the termite mound. So he didn't just strike it lucky with the conditions with the termite mound, in the midst of him finally getting lucky with the conditions, in strolls a perfectly behaved anteater, positions itself just right for some time during the brief widow of opportunity during the 30 second exposure and the photographer was perfectly prepared for this to happen. Dude was just not a little bit lucky, but extremely lucky and to top it off he also was prepared to be this lucky - I guess he just had an inkling that he would strike gold this time - a lucky genius, with talent, heaps of patience, nerves of steel and also a frequent photography competition entrant with many awards to his name so he knew what kind of image it would take to stand a chance of winning.