Flora vs. Fauna

The Fauna Gallery guidelines state that, "Images that include domesticated animals should be posted in the Man & Nature Gallery." But there is no such prohibition against domesticated plants showing up in the Flora Gallery, where probably half the pictures are cultivated flowers. Why the double standard?

I don't think it's a double standard at all... there is a difference between domesticated animals (which refers to dogs/cats/pet horses) and home-grown plants. If you have a lined pond that naturally populates itself with frogs, they are still wild animals and I think the same goes for a plant. You can stock that pond with cattails and water lillies but they are still "wild" plants. Even something grown at a nursery that you bring home is a living and "natural" thing.

You may be confusing captive and domesticated - capitve animals CAN and are regularly posted in the fauna gallery.

I personally am not a fan of "studio" flora shots - I prefer to photograph a subject that I find in the wild, but a store bought plant is still natural and alive and there are plenty of photographers who can really bring out their beauty.

Shoehorning diverse disciplines into a single standard works about as well as shoehorning people. If the florists are happy with it and have been happy with it since the inception, where's the issue? If there's an issue among faunists about domestic animals, they should resolve it themselves.

"a store bought plant is still natural and alive "
A store-bought Pomeranian or Persian is as natural and alive as a Chrysanthemum or Dahlia. I just see them as "hand of man" subjects, not "nature" subjects.

I'm not trying to shoehorn diverse disciplines into a single standard. There's wild nature and there's cultivated nature, and that goes for plants as well as animals. I'm not saying one is superior or any kind of rabble-rousing stuff like that. Maybe the flora gallery folks are fine with the double standard. Wild plant subjects can be hard to come by in the winter, and if you eliminate cultivated plants, maybe the gallery would languish.

Thankfully Earth rotates, revolves, has some tilt and hence has different seasons at the same time in different parts of the World . When one side languishes, another side flourishes. Having said that it would be great to have more members from Asia on board.

What about Dragonflies/Damselflies/Butterflies etc etc ? If shot in the gardens, are they wild ? What about shooting them with a "garden flower" perch ?

Sounds complex to me.

I assume that John is talking about following the strict guidelines of no domestic animals or hybrid flowers in nature class competitions for organizations such as PSA or NECCC and most camera clubs. They have gone so far as to eliminate zoo images and animals in nature preserves from the nature competitions. When competing in those organizations I follow their rules and place those images into the "open" category since there is no category strictly for flora. When placing an image in the avian, nature or fauna forums on NPN I also follow those rules and the rule of "no hand of man" but we do have floral, photo art and man & nature categories, among others, to use as an alternative to just one catch all called "open."

In floral and photo art on this site there is a broader scope of acceptance of images. I have always understood that floral is "anything that grows" and photo art is anything manipulated in any way other than minor adjustments such as levels, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, removing dust spots, leveling the horizon and sharpening.

I appreciate a forum that highlights flora as a stand alone category because it is not in the other organizations and NPN gives me a place to showcase my type of photography and get useful critiques from others with the same interest. Strict rules to exclude hybrid flowers, trees, etc. would disallow most of the posts in this forum and I would surely miss the variety of plants/flowers seen from around the world, hybrid or not.

Strict rules to exclude hybrid flowers, trees, etc. would disallow most of the posts in this forum and I would surely miss the variety of plants/flowers seen from around the world, hybrid or not.

Floral Photography is one branch which is extremely amenable to abstracts - focus on colors, forms, shapes etc. Many of my photos for example use a flower but has nothing really to do with photographing a flower in the traditional sense.

IMO the Flora Gallery should be definitelly divided into two indipendent galleries, one for Studio & Arl-like images and one for natural "outdoor taken" flora images.

I agree with Luke. Y'all are thinking way too much about this.I have horses, which are domesticated,and I have flowers, that are pretty and have "taken over" my garden...plus lots of wildflowers in Texas.

I don't think of flowers as being domesticated ...but see them as being "tamed" from the wild.

One point I see missing in this is maybe the "domesticated" label is misleading perhaps it should just be "animals" . I think that would at the very least remove the double standard "stigma."

Paul

As far as Fauna goes, it's my opinion that the original intent of that gallery to exclude "domesticated" animals was simply to prevent the gallery from becoming one where people post images of their pets. I don't post in Fauna, but I certainly wouldn't want the gallery full of pictures of "my dog Spot." "Here is Trixie playing with a ball of yarn...."

Similar reasoning for ES&S and the "hand of man." The intent is not necessarily to exclude fence posts or hiking trails, but really the spirit and intent is to avoid pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, Seattle skyline or the classic red canoe in a lake...

Just my .02.

Lon

Interesting discussion. I have no problem with "domestic plants" in flora gallery. But, I would like to point out that strictly speaking domestic horse photos have been in the fauna gallery. Strictly speaking there are no wild horses in North America, only feral animals.

I guess I don't have a problem with what kind of flower a person shoots and puts in the flora gallery. My personal preference is to shoot wild flowers. I guess shooting a flower in your garden is no different then shooting an animal in the zoo (which may have been raised in captivity) which I have done plenty of times.