hello all,its romero here to drop sone knowledge on all my fellow benchers and rail enthusiasts!
first off,if your benching from a public place,whether it be on the sidewalk the road,and overpass whereever you are at,you are well within your legal rights to take pictures of the trains,and have no obligation,if stopped to hand over your camera or explain why you are taking pics in the first place.if someone tries to forcibly take it from you that can be concidered theft.thats IF your on public property.on public property you have the right to take pictures of people,including police officers even without their consent unless they are in an area where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy i.e. a bathroom or dressing room or their house.you can flick police as long as your not impeding them or getting in the way of their job,so if your across the street for instance flicking a cop actin an ass you have every right to.
understand though that he might still try to threaten or harrass you in some way,but again if your in a public place you have every right to take pics.
one private property,i.e. in the yard itself things get tricky.if your in a train yard you are technically tresspassing which depending on where your at can be an arrestable offense,so its best not to fight with them.your best bet is to tell them you are just a fan of the rails and you were just taking pics and did not want to cause any trouble,be as courteous as possible and they will usually let you leave with a warning,if they ask to see your camera dont fight because again technically your tresspassing and they can and probably will confiscate it on arrest,so your best bet is to 1.have a seperate camera for your own work and to leave that memory card at home and not bring it to the yard and 2.delete any incriminating pics on your yard camera that might indicate that you took part in said pictures.usually though if your nice they will let you off with a warning.
if your painting i suggest not bringing a camera with you unless your sure this will be the only chance to flick your piece,like if you know that your piece is gonna roll the next day,other wise i would come back later and flick it when you know,your not covered in paint haha...its always a danger bringing your camera to the yard the same time your painting,because in the event you get caught the last thing you need is to have a recent pic of a very recent piece on your camera while trying to sneak out of the yard at 2 in the morning.its not a good look.if you do bring it i suggest hiding the memory card on you in a good place,im not gona say where thats for you to decide.up your ass should do the trick.
most of this is common sense though guys.
http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf
a must read for all my benchers out there...
Re: DIGITAL CAMERAS IN THE YARD -
01-21-2011, 09:34 PM
