The use of animal models to make wildlife images has always caused controversy. For a time, it was a well hidden practice done by many of the top professional photographers. They often went so far as to have secrecy agreements signed by the animal handlers. It may seem like a strong contradiction to call a photograph of a captive animal a wildlife image. That is something each one of us will have to decide for ourselves.

One good reason for using animal models would be the difficulty of getting a quality photograph of a specific species in the wild. Take the mountain lion, for example, an outdoorsman can go a lifetime with only a couple of brief sightings - none of which offered a photo opportunity. My own experience with wolverines has never even allowed me to get a camera set up, yet alone to get a photograph. If I want to photograph one of these cagey creatures I will likely have to use a captive one for my subject.

It is important to us to bring this subject to the attention of wildlife image collectors because of the unfortunate abuse of trust by some unscrupulous photographers. We present in our galleries animals described as photographed under "controlled conditions" and have recognized the same animals in the same locations represented by others as photographed in the wild...sometimes with great elaboration of how the shot was captured. It not only offends our sense of honesty, it also casts a shadow on all wildlife photographers. We feel this distracts from the legitimacy of many beautiful images that were obtained under controlled conditions.....TRS & KAS