Photographers react with outrage at National Geographic train tracks photo

I agree with @Bangers. I don't care how many people have been smushed by trains, in the context of it having anything to do with this photograph. If you don't have enough sense to stay off the tracks then that's your beeswax. While I don't fancy 'train track photography' as I generally find it tiresome, I'm ok with NG photographic a man, woman, or alien wherever they please.. whether it be on a train track, 29,000 ft. mountain peak in high winds, or even shooting a model riding backwards on a one-legged deranged giraffe...

I stay off tracks. I look both ways before crossing the street. What others do is their business. In this case, the issue is between NG and whoever owns the track.

@Telia

You know, there's a main point of the article. You should be able to spot it.

@bangers response was ridiculous, with red herrings all about his reasoning, like this gem of reasoning:

"How many photos have we seen of people posing on streets. No cars around mind you. Has anyone reacted in this way about street shots."

Sigh.

Total forest/trees fail.

@Edward... My post relates to public sentiment caring whether other people take photos on the tracks, etc., in the first place... ** like NG did for this photograph** Why NG took the photo isn't related to my comment.

"Not even a month after another tragic, well-publicized incident, **National Geographic is coming under fire for posting a photo of a woman standing on train tracks at sunset..**"

I think the need for a public message is senseless. Bangers touched on a point that many women sense on a daily basis; the difference between when men do something vs when women do it. Bangers is generally correct in his assessment that there'd be less of a public outcry if men were on the tracks; instead of 'unfortunate female victims'; men would just be viewed as "dumb assess."

My post agrees with Banger's general sentiment (not specifics) and I agree with Bangers that people shouldn't give a rats how NG conveys a message.

@ Teila

With all due respect...that view doesn't make any sense. No, he's not correct..that's just how you PERSONALLY feel. That doesn't make it correct at all. Man, woman, ape, chicken or deer, its not a good idea to be on those tracks if they are active. It doesn't have ANYTHING to do with being a woman either..that's sjw territory. You're adding that narrative into it, and it just derails the conversation.

The public notice is valid, because, hey, people do dumb things. A LOT of dumb things. Kids have dumb sex and make babies they shouldn't. Should we not care'? Of course we should. Condoms campaigns? Yup, again because people do dumb things. How many women and men have died taking selfies in various cliffs, bridges, etc.

So YES, there are truly dumb things in this world. And people should stop doing those dumb things for their own safely and in consideration of the people that love them. The gender argument should burn in the pile of politically and gender correct nonsense.

Re-read that again. I didn't quantify the proportion of humans that are idiots. In truth, everyone has something they're an idiot about...at least at moments.

The fact that he's right though, must count for something.

@Samuel C ... Street lights, etc., also greatly increase utility & traffic flow not just safety.

Some people need "smoking is dangerous to your health" labels on cigarettes, etc.. I think that common sense should tell people that inhaling smoke (or shoveling food into their mouth) isn't healthy. I don't need labels to tell me that. I don't need lights and cross bar to tell me to look before I cross train tracks. I think that's for parents to stress to their children. I don't like people getting mashed by trains, *** but I don't like companies having to pay millions of dollars to compensate for stupidity either. How 'bout everyone *in favor* of ridiculous safety labels (illustrating the obvious such as "do not put hand in a running wood chipper"), or spending tens of millions of dollars housing violent convicted criminals instead of just shooting them dead behind the courthouse, etc... pay for it through *their* taxes. Then everyone's left feeling juuust peachy ;)

huh? "...didn't evolve to easily cope with access to billions of stupid people 24/7"? Insulting, angry and incomprehensible. There's your evolution.

@barbakane i think you missed the irony in mr. dennis tennis post. he is well known on this board for his (fake) trumpist-like outrage.

@barbakane, yes, whenever somebody whizzes past by me as I drive at 54.9 mph, I wish they were shot dead. Imagine if we have snipers manned all of our streets and shoot every speedsters in the head with a .50 cal. The ensuing accidents would create a lot of jobs, from automotive, medical, life insurance, to mortuarial, etc.. This is how you stimulate the economy. Of course, there will be collateral fatalities but this is the acceptable price for Freedom! Make America Safe Again!

Your 2nd paragraph sentence is incomplete, not sure what you were trying to say.

As for common sense, yes, but the issue is "common sense is not so common." And for the record, no you can't hear a train coming from a mile away - often you won't hear it until it's a couple of HUNDRED FEET away, by which time it's often too late. Hence all the clamor about "tragedies."

If you're standing where you can SEE a mile of track in both directions, and you exercise care (and ATTENTION), you can safely take a quick snapshot like this, sure. But there's too many dim bulbs that will try the same thing at a curve with trees, vegetation or structures blocking the view of anything that is approaching, and too many who allow the long periods of inactivity on a railroad track to lull them into inattention and carelessness.

The photographer AND subject are both standing in the ONE place where they are GUARANTEED to get hit if a train comes, at the end of the day. Just sayin'.

Without any preparations it takes me a 5 minute walk to risk my life on an active train track for the sole gain of posting a selfie on some social media outlet.

Now let's go on a Safari or Antarctica on a whim. Meet me there in 10 minutes or so to take a group selfie? Assuming that you really start preparations for that trip now and manage to get there within 1-2 weeks, you would likely only meet other people as properly prepared and conscious about the dangers as yourself.

And why do you stand on that subway platform, why not on the tracks? I mean, you would hear the train soon enough to jump to the side, wouldn't you. And you could take many cool selfies with the people standing around you. Go take some risk for the fun of it. Don't be wimpy, dial back the anxiety.

"I cross the street in NYC every day. Not dead yet. I stand on an open platform on the NYC subway every day. Now THAT is far more dangerous."

Yeah, but do you do a photo shoot in the middle of traffic? Do you even get into the street if you don't have the signal on your side? Do you just haphazardly walk into oncoming traffic? As for the subway platform, are you stepping off the platform and waiting on the tracks themselves?

I take pictures of lightning storms, you know if you can see the lightning you can get struck; also metal tripod. Or how about those folks that take pictures of abandoned places.

You'll find a great many photos are dangerous to take, and sometimes illegal, does that mean we shouldn't take them?

What it boils down too is not what is right and wrong but what the social justice warriors like Timur says is right and wrong...They will try to shame you into their PC world of thought.

Erm, no. I will try to keep stupid people and kids from following a trend like sheep. That doesn't mean I discourage the courageous from stepping out of the norm. I may discourage trend media from declaring every brave stupidity out there as norm to follow, though.

But since we are now down to the level of personal discrediting the basis for reasonable discussion has already been left.

By the way: Every nutjob getting themselves killed for profane indulgence is one person less to compete with for limited natural resources. So go along. Meanwhile I will try to teach my kids to be courageous and innovative without getting killed by following short-lived social media hypes just for the sake of it. Most photos coming out of that experience are rather bland anyway.

Really....and how many actual photographers have been killed on train tracks...I would like to see that number if you think it is so many....I know around my parts you can see and hear a train coming from miles away.
And as for trends...I have seen photos taken on tracks predating WWI. The only trend I am seeing here is Face Book phonies trying to shame people....

I also didn't see any actual kids being run over by cars. For some inexplicable reason I still tell my kids that it's not okay to just run over the street without looking, even when they see other kids do it. Must be based on the same phoniness that makes me put away medications where they hopefully cannot reach them too easily. Very likely, because I have never seen actual kids swallow those. Yep, definitively phony.

On the other hand I let them climb stuff and tell them not to be sissies for negligible reasons. Hm, must be that "keep a balance" kind of thing where you try not to be one or the other extreme.

I agree. We need as many train track portraits as we can get.
Also, railroad employees actually enjoy it as their train runs over someone. Finally, trespassing is only against the law for other people, not smart people like you.

It's not my problem that other people are morons, Sam.

See the shiny rails?? Shiny = active.

I just clicked on the links in the DPReview article. The rail death involved an aspiring model . The photo shown in the news report of the accident, shows her as happy as can be down-track below a blind curve looking away from the curve at the camera.... a tragedy waiting to happen.

The Natl. Geographic image shows a woman standing on the track in the middle of a clear straightaway with what appears to be clear vision both ways. In addition the N.G Instagram in question simply gives the photographer's name and the text does not encourage others to do the same thing or suggest that the model or photographer is or should be a role model. Prudence dictates that one should avoid standing or walking on railroad tracks, but a quick shot when the track is clear and there is clear vision in both directions seems to me to be rather harmless, setting aside the fact that such an act may be criminal trespass on rail property. I really think too much has been made of this particular matter.

Trouble is there is no gain in your histrionic examples. There is no gain without some risk. 30 years ago, an American male, 22 years old offered a good opportunity in Los Angeles would uproot and leave New York, as an example.
Today, he'll live in his parent's basement until he's in his 30's then wonder what went wrong.

That kid living in his parents' basement is trying to find a job after the housing crash made his new home worthless over night, left him unemployed because the engineering firm he worked for laid off half its work force, and now has to find a way to pay back $100k in student loans to Caltech. You've watched a news program or read a paper in the last 15 years, haven't you?

Actually according to someone that knows these tracks it is a high speed line.

(For the record, I like the pic, but I'm not sure it's worthy of NatGeo).

That is the difference between a society that thinks for themselves and one that rely on rule and court for everything. It's not just USA vs Europe. Older generations in USA used to judge that if you stay a minute on a train track you should actively look for incoming trains. In this generation you could easily find a few thousand people that would risk having a leg cut by a train just to gain some million in court if there wasn't that trespassing law.
I am from europe, and never crossed my mind that it should exist a law to state the rules of taking photos around train tracks. It's just common sense to asses how dangerous a situation is and act accordingly.
Its kind of stupid to have an official rule/law for every stupid thing a stupid person can do :)

Badi hit the nail on the head.

Sadly, common sense isn't so common these days.

Well, at least one person got the joke.