Consciences issue.

[Chantel Stewels]

I'm struggling with a bit of consciences issue here and maybe someone can tell me what to do.
This morning as I woke I heard a muffled explosion sound outside some distance away. To make a long story short, a gas heater exploded in house a street away from me and although the emergency services were quite quick on the scene, the house was just about completely destroyed by the fire. I took pictures of the inferno from a distance before leaving for work but now I don't know if I should keep them. I mean, I stay in a fairly poor part of town and these unfortunate people probably did not have insurance and obviously lost everything. Someone also phoned me this afternoon at work and told me that 2 of the 4 people in the house were killed in the explosion. Now I really feel bad about taking photos of other people's misery and heartache.
I'll never post these photo's anywhere but shouldn't I just delete them?
I've heard before that one should take photo's of everything, good or bad but in this case I really don't know. What would you do?

[swmdrayfan]

Chantel,
I'd say follow your heart and instincts on this. If it bothers you to have the shots, then by all means delete them.
John

[another view]

I don't think you should delete them, not yet anyway. The situation is too new to make a decision like that. You didn't cause this situation and didn't do anything wrong. Here in the US, hoards of news crews would have tons of images and video footage, probably taken from closer to the scene than your vantage point.

Some of the most amazingly powerful images ever created have been in very tragic situations. You don't ever have to look at them again, however.

[livin4lax09]

it's documentary style photography. I understand where you are coming from, I once didn't take a photo of an injured player next to me on the sidelines because I felt the same way, but if a news crew was there they would be shooting the fire, same with paper photographers. Now I'm not saying that I agree with the media's choice to focus on tragedies, but at the same time, it's a major thing, don't miss your chance to document it. It's what millions of photojournalists do every day.

I just read an article last night about the problems the photographers were having with the tour de france. one Reuters car caught on fire and when the other photogs arrived on the scene, they started shooting away, even though it was their friends' lives that had been in danger, and their friends' thousands of dollars worth of equipment that was burning up in the car. What harm is it going to cause to take photos? that's what you have to ask yourself.

[adina]

Sit on it. Don't delete them, don't edit them, don't look at them, whatever. Just leave them on your hard drive.

Obviously, you were compelled to take the photos. You can't undelete them.

[freygr]

My suggestion is to just move them to a subdirectory on your hard drive and put a text file with the facts and your feelings, and don't forget to do a full backup of all your photos onto another hard drive, CD, or DVD.

[mn shutterbug]

You can't undelete them.

Yes you can, as long as you haven't emptied the garbage.

I agree with what others have said. Having taken the photos and storing them, does not say anything bad about you.

[WesternGuy]

Chantel, another point of view. Maybe the authorities, or other interested parties, might be interested in seeing them. I don't know that I would get rid of them, because, as someone has indicated, this is documentary style photography. I agree with what Mike and others say, as well. Ultimately, though, it comes down to what you are comfortable with.

Hope this helps...

WesternGuy

[Chantel Stewels]

I must say, this morning (it's now 05h55 here), I'm actually feeling a bit better about keeping the photos. It's just that this story hit a bit close to home, literally!
Thanks for all your suggestions and kind words people. I'm keeping the photos but just won't post them anywhere. I just felt a bit papparazzi-like yesterday!

[Frog]

Your conscience doesn't match your avatar.

[SRT4JM]

Keep 'em. Maybe the next of kin would like to see them. May be add to their closure.

[Chantel Stewels]

Frog, my avatar is a joke, what happened to these people was no joke.
SRT4JM, my local photography friends are already lining up to see the pics.

[freygr]

Yes you can, as long as you haven't emptied the garbage.

I agree with what others have said. Having taken the photos and storing them, does not say anything bad about you.

NO as long as they have not been over written (either the file allocation being reused, makes it a much longer recovery, but if any of the file clusters have been reused then the file is gone). There are some free file recovery programs one is, Link: http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

and Lexar has their photo recovery software than can recover photos from formated memory cards.

[OBie]

I say keep an original copy of the photos. Keep them until you've forgotten about them. It's possible as mentioned above, that the authorities or family, or insurance company may find them useful eventually.

I think you've just discovered that you wouldn't make a good paparazzi or news photographer. I discovered that when I was at the steeplechase races last April alongside one of the jumps. I was taking stills as the horses flew over the jump, and one horse fell. It never even occured to me to take a photo of the fall, or even the aftermath, when we were all quietly waiting for the jockey and horse to get up and be OK (which they both were).

But as long as you have the pics, save them someplace safe, and keep your ears open for legitimate sources that might find them useful.