Treading Lightly & Wildflower Photography

I am interested in seeing what you guys do to tread lightly while photographing wildflowers or delicate forest / tundra vegetation. Do you usually shoot from the trail or if you venture off trail what specific things do you do to minimize your impact on the vegetation?

I am asking because I didn't have much luck last year while shooting alpine wildflowers along the trail last year, but didn't want to venture too far off trail out of concern for damaging the vegetation.

Personally, I watch where I walk so that when I place my feet I am going in between plants and or stepping on rocks. I avoid any areas that look like they've been previously walked on (not a true path but trampled flowers). If I'm with someone else I don't follow their exact path unless it's over rocks to minimize the impact. I try to avoid places that are marked for revegitation. I'm very careful where I place my pack. In Moab and other desert places where there is cryptobiotic soil, I never step on that. If I venture in, it's only rock hopping or not at all. I don't want my foot to cause 100 years of damage. If I can shoot from the trail I do. I'm not perfect and have stepped on a flower or two but I think that minimizing your impact on any environment is paramount if we want to continue to see the beauty. Thanks for being a concerned photographer! I wish there were more.

Brian: There are places in Texas in the spring where it is almost impossible not to step on some flowers if you venture into a field. Of course if the field is that dense I will have to have a really good reason to venture into it as I can probably get the same kind of shot from the edge of the field as from inside it. Here's a shot from Marble Falls, TX I took seven or eight years ago. I took the shot outside a fence line but I've seen many folks hop the fence - despite "No Trespassing" signs - in order to get a shot of a kid immersed in the bluebonnets or to even get the same perspective I have here. One year the landowner got so ticked off that he plowed this magnificent field under! I really don't blame him but I am glad to report that he did reseed it eventually and I'm hoping this year will be another banner season. Even if unfenced I don't know that I would go tromping into a field like this because significant flower damage is unavoidable. However, I did walk out into this field but if you notice there are grass belts and some open spaces where I could step without harming the flowers. Of course if you get out into some real dense areas you might be faced with something like this!

I am a firm believer in do no harm, I might nudge sometime out of my way but I never damage anything, I like to find rocks or bits of log to step on but I am always careful where I step. Being a fist born I tend to stick to the rules and the path !!