dpc said:
mnclayshooter said:
As a closet rail fan myself, these are wonderful photos. As part of Operation Lifesaver and as a person who works around trains every single day - PLEASE STAY OFF THE TRACKS.
In my area, there's another funeral planned for someone who was on the tracks and got hit by a freight train because they weren't paying attention. It happens every day somewhere. Its our responsibility as photographers to put our own safety AND the safety of our portrait subjects first. Please take it seriously.
https://oli.org/about-us/news/collisions-casulties
Well put. I certainly take it seriously. None of these photos were taken on the tracks. The picture of the bumping post although it may look like it was taken on the tracks, wasn't.
Thanks - the comment wasn't directed specifically to any photo. I'm just sensitive to it as I work with a couple railroad companies/transit agencies and we just had another fatality locally as a direct result of carelessness and a lack of situational awareness by a pedestrian. Railroads are a unique and interesting thing to photograph. I personally take a lot of photos of and around them. I cringe and feel a great deal of anxiety when I see high school portrait photos with a pretty girl in a nice dress standing on the tracks... or photos trying to get that vanishing-point perspective over the polished rail heads etc... they are cool photos, to be certain, but they represent a level of safety concern that RR co's and transit agencies are trying hard to stamp out. The more times people see a great photo on the tracks, the more times someone else tries to replicate them. "if it was ok for one photographer, it is ok for another". When I'm taking photos, I'm getting clearance, have a spotter, am wearing the proper PPE gear (reflective vests, pants etc) and know the train schedules. But it's part of my job to do so.
I know of a couple instances where trespassing fines have been assessed back against a photographer mainly because it was obvious that they were in the ROW of the RR co's guideway. They aren't fining them because they're worried about the trespass, they're fining them because of the safety issue they've created by trespassing.
Keep up the great photos!