Amateur photographer ethical question

[czeano]

I recently was in the relatively uncommon situation of being a primary witness to a car accident. Immediately after checking on the passengers (no one was seriously injured, and I wasn't qualified to provide any other assistance) and calling 911, it occurred to me that I had a trunk full of photography gear.


I considered pulling out the camera and getting shots of the scene before emergency vehicles moved everything around. It might have helped the police investigation or the insurance companies. Then I realized bystanders and potentially the victims would get the wrong idea and be offended... or worse, assume I was taking shots of the incident to further my own career by whatever means.


Is there a "standard" for being in such circumstances? Cursory googling indicates most photographers tend away from taking pictures at accident scenes. Is there potential liability to consider? Has anyone taken such pictures and in retrospect either been glad or regretted it?


I hope to never happen upon such a scene again, but I imagine the ethical implications apply to other situations as well.

[Brendan7]

http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf

[TucsonTRD]

As the pdf file says, it is not illegal to take photos of the accident.


If you want to for your own archives or use, then go for it. But it is highly unlikely the photos would be needed by the police or insurance. If you were involved in the accident, then I would suggest taking tons of pictures for both the police and insurance as a precautionary measure.

[Sheiky]

Hey there,


well as been said it's not illegal. However it's not really appropriate in a lot of times. Mostly due to shock/trauma of the victims. There's a lot of emotion evolved and often the victims aren't really helped by some guy/girl taking pictures of them while they are that emotional.


About 8 years back my uncle got a heart-attack during a family-reunion at a local recreational area. Some random other family began to take photos of the scene. It was really emotional, especially surrounded by the entire family and it didn't look good. When the other family started to make pictures my nephew totally freaked out. I could hold him so he didn't go berserk against them, but when it would happen these days...I'm not sure if I could again []


What I try to say is: yes the family had the right to shoot pictures, but in my opinion it was very inappropriate and causing even more drama than already was present. Of course this was more than just a head-tail collapse with cars, but still you shouldn't underestimate peoples emotions. So be careful with that.





Big point 2: the type of photography you're describing is the type of photography that have made some photographers really famous. One case: war-photography...my opinion: sometimes even they seem very unethical and sometimes I get the idea that a good shot is more worth to them than helping the people out. I know they have every right to shoot some photos, but in my understanding they sometimes take advantage of someone's problems and I personally could never do that kind of thing. It's a media-thing...sometimes I appreciate what they do and sometimes I'm thinking get your nose out of private matters...


In the end.... I'm not saying that you can't take photos of such a scene!! I'm just saying: be careful with what you do...

Immediately after checking on the passengers (no one was seriously injured, and I wasn't qualified to provide any other assistance) and calling 911, it occurred to me that I had a trunk full of photography gear.

At least that's the best order of things you should have done![Y]


Jan