Had my first run in with the police today

MJ Stebbings said:
I bet his shots wont make the local rag and remind people to slow down/not drink drive/ stop being total cocks behind the wheel of a car!
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No, they won't. The best way forward is education and that involves working with schools, colleges, groups and organisations and other agencies across all age ranges and different cultures.

Lisa
 
badgerbaiter said:
so were you taking these photos as part of your job (i'm not leading you anywhere btw, I'm just interested)
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No, I wasn't. I have just started with actual photography and I am grabbing any chance I can to take pictures of various moments in life and learn more about this artform.

I don't agree that taking shots of the RTA was the right thing to do, but I did so with clear intentions. I never once shot the victims, I never once made an attempt to cross the barriers. I kept well back at all times, further back than the rest of the onlookers.

For me, it was something that I hopefully will not see again, and if I do, it'll be too soon. I wanted to know if it was something I could document, an event that serious is likely to contain a stark message in the pictures. I won't be stopping to shoot one again, but for me, the opportunity to learn something presented itself, so I took it.

I figured the pictures could go to the papers, and possibly to the police should they mount an investigation. Which they said they inteded to do at that time.
 
fabs said:
Crazy Horse IS female! :D
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I know, i meant for the males here! She wanted to perv at the men in uniform.... im sure some guys here like ladies in Uniform? :D
 
Yes, I'm a girl!!!!

LISA
 
I doubt the Police would want the photos for my reasons stated above (you arrived after the incident).

Lisa
 
At last Fabs and Crazyhorse are the one that are seeing my point now, Thank you.

Really surprising to me that so many people think the police are in the wrong here and that taking pictures of this accident is so right.
Probably not the right thing to say but ..No, you're right, it's not
 
Sorry, I'm confused, did they take the memory card or not?

Lisa
 
badgerbaiter said:
thats not what i meant.. i meant that the policeman is more likely to be drawn to the SLR not only because of the size but the noise compared to the other cameras.

.
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It's a fair point obviously, but I think it goes a bit deeper than that. Virtually everyone has a camera phone these days, and the vast majority of people we see using cameras are holding that phone or little digicam out at arms length in that very casual way they do. It's become such a normal sight I don't think it's even thought of as 'proper' photography'. As soon as someone lifts a camera up to eye level, holding it with both hands, they seem to be taking the whole thing far more seriously and that's what gets them noticed.
 
Crazyhorse and badgerbaiter, it seems that, for some reason beyond my understanding that you're attempting to make me feel bad for taking the pictures.

Well, I don't. I'm sorry, but I don't feel bad. I feel bad for the victims of the crash, I feel bad for the person who caused it. I feel bad for the family of these poor people, and I feel bad for the emergency services who had to witness it close up.

Do I feel bad for pointing my camera at a mangled car and taking pictures without a hint of malice? Sorry, no.

Your contribution to this thread is ultimately worthless, since the event has alread happened, so trying to make me feel bad for something I did in the past that I have already stated I won't be doing again just seems like a waste of time to me. It also stinks of moral highgrounding a little bit, too.

Just saying.
 
Philx1979 said:
At last Fabs and Crazyhorse are the one that are seeing my point now, Thank you.

Really surprising to me that so many people think the police are in the wrong here and that taking pictures of this accident is so right.
Probably not the right thing to say butYou're right, it's not
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Thats a bit ****ing harsh ********!
 
Philx1979 said:
Removed
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Wow. That's actually really harsh.

You wish serious injury or death upon me or my family just to prove a point?

Are you a sociopath?

What about the person taking pictures of my smash? Do you wish an accident on him, too?

That's actually really creepy. I'd never wish something like that on anyone, but I'm the bad guy for taknig the pictures?

You need help, mate.
 
Philx1979 said:
Really surprising to me that so many people think the police are in the wrong here and that taking pictures of this accident is so right.
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Round and round we go.

Legally the police were wrong and the OP was right.

Morally the opinion is split and down to individual opinion.

I think Police officers often confuse their own moral beliefs as being law and are convinced something is illegal simply because they believe it should be.
 
leave1 said:
Wow. That's actually really harsh.

You wish serious injury or death upon me or my family just to prove a point?

Are you a sociopath?

What about the person taking pictures of my smash? Do you wish an accident on him, too?

That's actually really creepy. I'd never wish something like that on anyone, but I'm the bad guy for taknig the pictures?

You need help, mate.
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REMOVEDyou seem to think it was ok to take the pictures of the incident so surely you must think it would be ok to have pictures taken of your accident then?
 
Philx1979 said:
At last Fabs and Crazyhorse are the one that are seeing my point now, Thank you.

Really surprising to me that so many people think the police are in the wrong here and that taking pictures of this accident is so right.
Probably not the right thing to say but REMOVED
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Can I just point out that I never actually said that the OP was wrong in taking pictures. I was just trying to point out that there may have been alternative ways to deal with the situation and that photographers's rights aren't the only consideration in these circumstances. I vertainly do not want to be associated with any comments wishing harm on the OP such as you have made.

leave1 said:
Your contribution to this thread is ultimately worthless
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And that comment is out of order. All opinions are valid here.
 
Don't you dare call my contributions worthless. As I have pointed out to you, you have no evidence to provide to the authorities, no matter how important you might have thought you were at the time.

Anyway, why tell us about your experience, that's already happened and can't be changed.

Lisa
 
Philx1979 said:
REMOVED, you seem to think it was ok to take the pictures of the incident so surely you must think it would be ok to have pictures taken of your accident then?

REMOVED
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It's "you're".

Could you do everyone a favour and leave this threadREMOVED? I don't feel comfortable discussing things with people who with me to die.
 
I think some people need to take a step back from this thread before it gets heated.
It's been a fairly sensible and mature discussion so far, lets keep it that way.
 
Good call Marcel :clap:
 
I've never felt the need to put anyone on my ignore list until now. Hopefully won't have to do so again.
 
I apologise to you leave1, however we still have different opinions on the subject, i dont think its right, but you do.

i also apologise to anyone else on the matter, i hope i can be forgiven as i really enjoy this forum.

So all i can say is i take back the remarks i made.
I`m not gonna post on this topic again cos i get to personal with it, sorry.

Regards

Philx1979
 
I go out for 30 minutes, and over 3 pages of replies appear and i completely lose the plot with all of the comments removed!

To me the biggest issue is the initial respons of the police who were more interested in 'enforcing' their ignorance of the law and 'assaulting' a member of the public than dealing with the matter in hand (the car crash).

The photography aspect is secondry and is down to the individual. Would i take the pics - damned right i would, but with similar restraint to the OP, more as a record of events than as material for a youtube-gorefest.
 
Crazyhorse said:
Don't you dare call my contributions worthless. As I have pointed out to you, you have no evidence to provide to the authorities, no matter how important you might have thought you were at the time.

Anyway, why tell us about your experience, that's already happened and can't be changed.

Lisa
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Why are you putting words in my mouth? It seems like you're bending this to fit your emotions.

I didn't think I was important. I never once stated that I thought that.

Also, you haven't seen the pictures I took, so how can you possibly make such a cast iron judgement about whether I have evidence or not? If I didn't have potential evidence, then the police wouldn't have told me I had potential evidence. They wouldn't have taken my phone number with the intention of calling me should my pictures be needed. The newspaper wouldn't have taken a copy of my memory card either, taken down a short witness report from me, and all of my details before dispatching their own reporter to the scene.

Honestly, I have no problem discussing this, but it seems like you're just getting angry for no reason, and then bending the facts to support your own case. Which isn't really fair.

Also, I called your contribution worthless because taking the moral highground at such a late juncture in the thread doesn't add anything to the discussion. I've already explained why I took the pictures, so there is no point in trying to make me feel bad about it.
 
So to sum up. Was it illegal, no.

Do people have differing opinions on the morality of doing so, Yes.

Thank God for that, otherwise it would be a very boring world we all inhabit.

However should others have the right to impose their opinion on someone who has done nothing wrong, No.

Are we so unknowing that we have to resort to personal insults instead of reasoned debate, Jury out on that one:(

Oh I would take the pics for news use.
 
Chillimonster said:
More as a record of events than as material for a youtube-gorefest.
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This was my intention. I am relatively new to photography, and am yet to understand what is right and what is wrong. My main intention at the moment, beyond actually learning how to take a shot, is to make thought provoking pictures. I saw this as an opportunity to both hone my skill and create a record of events.

I didn't want pictures of victims in my shots, I didn't want any blood or suffering. I just wanted to capture the wreckage and the emergency services doing their job.

It seems like some people in this thread are treating it as if I was diving over the barriers telling firefighters to "put that steel cutter down and hold this bloody reflector!....Now POSE!"
 
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