PJ-Accident photos, which do you print? (graphic)
BRATCH
Registered Users Posts: 45 Big grins
I'm not sure if you guys are used to this kind of stuff, but if it's too graphic feel free to delete it. I just thought it would be an interesting topic of conversation.
[MOD EDIT: Just to be on the safe side, I've turned the images to links, to protect the squeamish. THE IMAGES LINKED ARE GRAPHIC]
A few months ago I was sitting in my office and I heard the tones go out on the scanner saying there was an accident with injuries. It wasn't too far from my office, but I had a feeling it was a bad one simply because I knew people can carry a lot of speed on that stretch of road off of a particular turn.
Anyway, I believe that the car in the photos was driving into the setting sun and was going to turn into the local fair grounds entrance and either didn't see or thought she could beat an oncoming semi.
The first photo is the photo we ultimately ran on the front page of the paper. The second photo is what I wanted to run, but ultimately knew that there was a slim chance it would happen because we are a smalltown weekly newspaper and we were pretty sure our readers wouldn't appreciate this particular dose of reality.
http://BRATCH.smugmug.com/photos/163288248-L.jpg
Just so you know, we received two letters to the editor against me, one referring to me as a "buzzard," and a letter supporting me and the paper for running this shot. And we ran all the letters, we love hate mail.
http://BRATCH.smugmug.com/photos/163288080-L.jpg
This was the photo that I really wanted to run. The look on her face, her looking right at the camera and that beam of light hitting her in the eye hooks me. I would have like to actually crop it more, but I did it this way so that the readers could see a little of the car and the damage and to lessen the punch because the first photo still had some punch, but a 6 inch square of blood covered face would have brought too much attention to us.
She ended up being alright and so were the other passengers.
So I was wondering what you guys thought about this situation and if others have had similar experiences. This is NY Post 1930's-era gore compared to what is printing these days.
[MOD EDIT: Just to be on the safe side, I've turned the images to links, to protect the squeamish. THE IMAGES LINKED ARE GRAPHIC]
A few months ago I was sitting in my office and I heard the tones go out on the scanner saying there was an accident with injuries. It wasn't too far from my office, but I had a feeling it was a bad one simply because I knew people can carry a lot of speed on that stretch of road off of a particular turn.
Anyway, I believe that the car in the photos was driving into the setting sun and was going to turn into the local fair grounds entrance and either didn't see or thought she could beat an oncoming semi.
The first photo is the photo we ultimately ran on the front page of the paper. The second photo is what I wanted to run, but ultimately knew that there was a slim chance it would happen because we are a smalltown weekly newspaper and we were pretty sure our readers wouldn't appreciate this particular dose of reality.
http://BRATCH.smugmug.com/photos/163288248-L.jpg
Just so you know, we received two letters to the editor against me, one referring to me as a "buzzard," and a letter supporting me and the paper for running this shot. And we ran all the letters, we love hate mail.
http://BRATCH.smugmug.com/photos/163288080-L.jpg
This was the photo that I really wanted to run. The look on her face, her looking right at the camera and that beam of light hitting her in the eye hooks me. I would have like to actually crop it more, but I did it this way so that the readers could see a little of the car and the damage and to lessen the punch because the first photo still had some punch, but a 6 inch square of blood covered face would have brought too much attention to us.
She ended up being alright and so were the other passengers.
So I was wondering what you guys thought about this situation and if others have had similar experiences. This is NY Post 1930's-era gore compared to what is printing these days.
If they hate you they have a subscription. -- Bratch
0
Comments
As you said above, you had two letters to the editor... one "for" and one "against"... tough call in a small town, but in this case everyone came out of it okay... so I would have gone for the most impact (pardon the pun!) that I could achieve.
Cheers,
Kenny
http://www.kenlyonsphotography.com.au
Nice capture though.
Sheila
http://sheilalatta.smugmug.com
Keep up the good work!!
Cathie
My Smugallery
My Blog
If at first you don't succeed - you're doing about average!
Ohhhhhhh dear, the sight of a bent steering wheel is very disturbing, it usually indicates there has been contact with the person behind it
Here's my thoughts....... many years ago my older sister and her husband were involved in a fatal head on motor car accident, in which the driver of the other car was killed on impact.
The fact that he hit them head on is all that saved them, if he had of hit them on the side at that speed, he would have killed both my sister and her husband.
When he hit them, he forced them back into the on coming traffic, which ploughed into the back of their car.
My sister told me weeks later that they didn't get hurt so much on the initial accident it was when they were forced back into the on coming traffic,
as your seat belts only work ONCE.
A local newspaper took a photo of my sister being cut out of the car,
with her head still imbeded into the dashboard of the car.
You cannot see her face just the back of her head. (she looked dead)
She was scalped in the accident,
Had her jaws broken in mulitple places.
Split her sternum open from the inside.
Broke her colar bone,
Broke her foot,
and big black upside down number 7 bruise from the seat belt (saved her life, or she would have been thrown out of the car),
and she was 3 months pregnant at the time.
My sisters husband was not seen in the photo as, he was pinned under the steering wheel on the floor of the car, with his throat cut, and they were still trying to cut him out of the car too.
Amazingly enough, he still had his seatbelt on
The words didn't match the picture, they said something to the affect of two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries
After spending several days in the Intensive Care unit, and many weeks in hospital, my sister and her husband recovered from their injuries, and my sister carried her baby full term and delivered a very healthy baby boy
My brother-in-law contacted the paper who gave them copies of the photo's that had been taken of the accident, and it help my sister during the healing process, as she had no memory of the accident.
All she remembers is seeing the driver of the other car cross onto the wrong side of the road without warning and she screamed "what the hell is he doing!"
...... If your going to post pictures of injured people you should always do a follow up on how those people are doing.
I don't have a problem with such pictures, people need to take care on the roads and see what can happen when things go horribly wrong,
and that yes some times people die.
Here in Australia we run some pretty graphic commercials about drink drivers, which some countries would not run.
Maybe if your photo showed someone dead I would think differently.
I'm glad everyone is okay.
For news on the spot photography you did a very good job
.... Skippy
.
Skippy (Australia) - Moderator of "HOLY MACRO" and "OTHER COOL SHOTS"
ALBUM http://ozzieskip.smugmug.com/
:skippy Everyone has the right to be stupid, but some people just abuse the privilege :dgrin