Filming the aftermath is bad however filming an assault can have silver linings (we hope in the case of the man slaughter at Heaton Park) if it identifies the assailant..

Aah, ok, so if it’s your loved one and they die you’re then pleased it was filmed, but if they don’t then they’re (to quote you) “disgusting pondlife”. You can have one of these: 🙄

Cyclist got killed at Elephant and Castle a few weeks back, I rode past, road was closed, so we had to walk around. I reckon there were at least 200 people standing around the cordon looking, taking photos etc. There was nothing to see – a lorry, a squished bike, a tent and a lot of emergency vehicles. Crazy.

Can any of us say that we haven’t clicked to look at a picture of a professional cyclist who has fallen and injured himself? In doing so we are all feeding the parasites.

*cough*.

I was just thinking about that. Of course I’d never take photos of an accident… except…

I went to Northern Ireland to watch the Giro d’Italia. We watched the TTT. I took my camera and longish lens and was happily snapping away getting lots of photos of teams going past. And then Garmin Sharp crashed right in front of us. Indeed I have a photo where if you look closely at the very edge of the shot you can see a bike wheel at completely the wrong angle – Dan Martin himself has fallen sideways out of the shot but the three riders behind him are heading straight towards the wheel.

They crash and I stand around a bit shocked for a moment. Then I notice everyone taking photos, and people jumping off press bikes and poking their cameras into the action. And I look at the camera round my neck and think “hang on, this is newsworthy stuff”. And really, why would anyone want my photos when there are press photographers on the scene anyway. But on the other hand the press photographers and the live tv kind of indicate that there is no real expectation of any privacy.

In the end I did take some photos. I wanted to capture the sense of panic and activity rather than the grimaces on faces or close ups of torn lycra but I’m still not entirely sure whether I should have or not.

I just googled “car accident death photos” … 😯

I blame this thread for putting me off driving … or cycling … or crossing the road …

You have to question what people take images of accidents for. If your reporting on an incident then thats what you’ve been asked to do. However several things sprang to mind just this morning. Professional photographers (should) have . I have sadly seen many people at accident scenes who’ve not survived – but the idea of photographic them is dreadful. If i took an image of a dead person IT WOULD NEVER BE USED! therefore it would be a useless intrusion. I can’t understand why people with camera phones choose to photograph an accident scene. Who are they sending it to or sharing it with. At least we have guidelines and a picture editor who’d lick my ass up the newsroom!