Nature photography can be much more than simple photography.

It's inspiration, art, creativity.

It's a magic feeling having the chance to look at nature with particular eyes, 

        to observe the animals in their intimate rituals, 

            to admire the delicate beauty of flowers, 

                to be enchanted by a breathtaking landscape.

But most of all, nature photography means awaking emotions and showing how fascinating, precious and endangered our nature is.

Therefore wildlife pictures should show how nature actually is: pictures should be artistic nature documents. 

Sometimes, however, it is crucial to photograph under controlled conditions either to avoid disturbance to endangered species or to achieve certain particular results, which otherwise would be almost impossible. 

In either case, for sake of clarity and honesty,  the author should always declare under which conditions the picture has been taken .

To this aim the well known nature photographer Fritz Poelking proposed the following labeling scheme, which I adopted for my pictures:

[1] A nature document - not arranged nor manipulated. In this case the picture has been taken without any interference of the photographer: it shows the nature as it is.

[2] Wild and controlled. In this case the subject is wild (not captive) but the photographer, however, interfered in the scene such as using feeders or arranging the picture scene in any manner. 

[3] Captive. Is used for subjects, which don't live free or wild (e.g. zoo, game-farm)

[4] Montage. Used for digital manipulation technique, multiple exposure or sandwich technique.

You might notice one of these labeling numbers in my picture captions.