Ethics and the questions of life

There really are not any questions of life in this post, I just thought it would make the post sound better. Instead ethics is the discussion, if you dont want to hear my rant on how important it is as a community of photographers then leave now.

Early this month a college student was asked to manipulate a photograph from a recent assigned event. His sky was not blue enough for the advisor, so the advisor said to him to change it. I applaud the student for standing up for his ethics and fighting the advisor on this matter. Journalism ethics are the most important corner stone that we have in our industry. Especially for photographers, when we are compared to paparazzi almost on a daily basis. It is important to hold on to something like ethics. Having the ability to say I would not do this because of a code that photojournalists follow is essential to the survival of trust with the public.

I know I have a strong sense of ethics, but the average reader does not, and probably will never question how or where we were able to capture an image. Jim Merithew's sportsshooter.com column said it best.

So good luck to whoever reads this thing. I hope you all find ethics to be a tool that photographers can use to the benefit of ourselves and the public.