What Would Marlin Perkins Do?

Image via WikipediaThe Sacramento Bee today issued an apology to its readers after discovering that a photographer had digitally manipulated a dramatic image taken at the Galt Winter Bird Festival.

The Bee said the published photo depicted a snowy egret attempting to snatch a frog from a great egret that captured the unlucky amphibian in its beak. Apparently, the shutterbug snapped the photo of the sly snowy egret making a play for the frog, but merged into the image a different photo of the great egret in which the frog was more evident. Duplicated images of plants in the photograph tipped off the editors.

Even in a feature photo, as compared to a hard news photo, readers should expect a faithful reproduction, unless alerted by the newspaper that the picture was altered for illustrative purposes. The photographer in question was given the bird by the paper in the form of a suspension pending an investigation.

The Bee egrets the error.