Nailed!

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Nailed 'Em - Amtrak Photographer

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Mike
(Thanks to Dennis Zanone)

Featured Comment by Peter T.: "Sadly, the link won't work in Canada due to licensing nonsense. This link should work for Canadian readers."

Mike replies: Thanks Peter! I'm taking your word for this, because your link won't work where I am....

Featured Comment by Andreas Manessinger: "Actually it gets harder and harder to laugh about these things. There is so much paranoia in our societies, so much suspicion, that there is hardly anything in satire, that I wouldn't expect sombody to do in reality, and often it turns out, reality writes the weirder scripts."

Mike replies: And if you think that's bad, Andreas, check this out. (Thanks to Mrten for this one.)

Featured Comment by Jerred Zegelis: "As a high school photography teacher, it was one of my most disheartening moments as a teacher when my students were stopped and told they couldn't take photographs of the Woodmen building in Omaha, Nebraska. They were on public property, doing everything respectfully, and they simply walked away and told me what happened. It took every ounce of control for me to not 'go off' on the security guards for this, but I had to try to set an example for my students. We did receive an apology from management, however, after I complained, and were asked to come back with our cameras. I'll at least give them that."

Featured Comment by David A. Goldfarb: "I had a funny moment just a couple of days ago when I attracted the attention of security guards for taking photos in B&H of all places! I'd just bought a focusing screen and sat down to install it and test it out in the lounge area near the exit, where there's a little space for customers to organize their things, and then I noticed two guards glancing at me and saying, 'Did he just take a picture? Are people allowed to take pictures here?' I laughed and said I was testing the focusing screen that I'd just bought in the store, and they were okay with that. B&H!"

Comments

[Imants]

The guy operating the surveillance cameras had stated his desire to enter the contest...........it seems that appropriate action has been taken.

[Sam G.]

I was watching this episode this morning and actually thought, "Man I hope this gets to TOP". As soon as I saw the post title, I knew what it was about. Hilarious.

[Awake]

How many years have we been at threat level "Orange", the next to highest, the next level higher being "AAaaaahhhhh!!!!"

Enough already. Can we go back to being Americans now?

[Tony Collins]

I think the joke would have worked better as a one liner.

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

This video gives me an error report. (Searching youtube gives no joy.)

[Rory]

Why doesn't the guy with the D3 use the other shutter button where the vertical grip is?

[misha]

Ya gotta watch out for them togs. You too could be a terist. I don't like yer looks, either, pilgrim.

[Bruce Walker]

Sadly, we Canucks can't view this. Instead, we get the message: "In Canada, Comedy Central videos are available on The Comedy Network". Only, when you go there (after a twisty chain of URLs) you find that this vid simply isn't available.

Ah, I love the freedom of the egalitarian web. :-)

[Bryce Lee]

Sadly the video doesn't work here in Canada...I have to go to the Canadian Comedy Network site.

Then there's nothing about Amtrak, zilch!
Besides what Canadian knows anything about Amtrak? Mind most don't know about VIA either.

So no great loss...however...it might be interesting, maybe.

[K. Chapman]

Looks as if Amtrak managed to censor the clip as it will not play on the Colbert site or from CTV in Canada.

[Sean]

Ha!

I was shooting in a packed cafe bar when one of the staff told me that a customer had some concerns about what I was doing. The waiter looked uneasy as he asked me If I'd kindly come and explain to the lady why I was shooting. Well I stated my case pretty well and she got it, she thanked me for explaining. She ended by saying "It's just in times like these" she said this with a smile and I smiled back and thought that I'd quit while I was ahead

I've been stopped in a train station myself

[Erez]

Oh well, I guess it's P&S for the press. No one will stop someone taking photos so unprofessionally.

Maybe the days of your dream camera will come thanks to the help of law makers..

[Lambert]

I must say, that was an ingenious sting operation to round up camera-wielding terrorists. Kudos to Amtrak. Well done!

[B Grace]

Hey, I was stopped for taking photos of shopping carts at Costco once. It happens. The interesting part of this story that seems to be lost is that it's nearly impossible to take a decent photo of an Amtrak train thanks to their horrible on-time record. No one really wants to wait six or eight hours for a train to arrive. That is one difficult contest!

[John Addison]

Peter T's link works in Canada, but it takes a long long time to load on my satellite system.

[Yvonne]

I agree, it's little point and shoot cameras, preferably silver, not black...

[Owen R Auer]

I was stopped last summer by a parks employee, not parks police, and told to stop taking photos of a new Ben and Jerry's ice cream store that opened on the Boardwalk here in NY.
Guess I shouldn't have been using my Bigma (at the 50mm setting)too.
Owen

[stephen connor]

To my fellow Canadians, patience is a virtue. Comedy Central, Colbert Report, clip 2 of 4. Works like a charm.

[Mike]

Interesting — works fine here in Austria. What's with Canada??

[P Mendes]

It seems that these authority abuses occur mainly in your Anglo-Saxon countries (USA and UK). Do we get reports of these things happening in other places? (Europe for instance)
Is there anything wrong with you guys? Personaly I don't think so, its just political and social opportunism.

[Andrew Golding]

"Do we get reports of these things happening in other places? (Europe for instance)". Try France, with their draconian privacy laws, street photography has become a risky, not to say potentially illegal, occupation.

[Ru Anderson]

They kept him chained to a wall for an hour??! Is that a normal delay or false imprisonment?

Any chance you can put this on Utube?

[Joe Toole]

What the h*ll is going on down there? You guys are letting your supposed Homeland Security get away with murder.
I understand that New York and London have to be particularly vigilant because of past terrorist attacks, but things seem to have gotten out of control.
I'm a railfan here in Toronto, and I take pictures in subway stations, train stations, along the tracks, etc., and have never had a problem.
My fears are that if you guys don't do something about this problem, the sickness is going to spread to Canada.
Here's a link to photographic rights in the Toronto area, and even though the laws where you are may be different, it still offers all sorts of other good advice on how to deal with many situations involving confrontations with the law.

http://ambientlight.ca/laws.php

[Clayton Lofgren]

The clip will not show in Venezuela, but you can click on "full episodes" and go to Feb 2 and see the full show.

[Aaron Britton]

Maybe it is time for us photographers to take back our rights. We should start organizing photos in, like a sit-in protest. Only we could have thousands of photographers show up at the same time to all of the places where we have rights to take photos but have seen them taken away by security. We could start with amtrack and go from there.

[Jim]

And then we have this from France:
http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=837675

[john robison]

Either a little silver P&S or a huge old 8X10 Deardorf with a studio dolly. When approached by the constabulary wail loudly that you were just trying to sneak a few photos but got caught.

[Rob]

I suppose it's easier to hassle photographers than for the police to use their intelligence (sic)and deal with more likely potential threats.

The police in Britain always look for the easiest and safest way to log up an arrest. Unfortunately, our cerebrally challenged politicians provide them with all the incentives.

[Dennis Allshouse]

This is not f***ing funny. This is a boneheaded abridgement of civil rights. And we need to wake up. And frankly I don't give a damn if it is a joke. And for this we can thank the Decider and his fascist minions.

[Rich Sajdak]

Try this link:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/55931/the-colbert-report-nailed-em---amtrak-photographer#s-p1-st-i1

[stephen connor]

I wonder if anyone has shown these guardians of national security Google Earth.

[glenn brown]

I am a canadian pro photographer and I don't need to tell anyone that the Mountie is one of our icons,recently I was informed by a mountie that I could not take his photo with my young daughter because DISNEY owned the copyright.

[Dave]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/1999/09/24/mounties990924.html

The agreement between Disney and the RCMP has ended.

[jr]

Here in Australia, the previous Prime Minister authorized a publicity campaign to make us peasants all feel better re possible terrorism acts in our southern hemisphere rendition of the land of the free.

The highlight? A fridge magnet with a phone number to call to report any suspicious happenings. And it came with - wait for it, drum roll please, maestro - an ingenious slogan, "Be Alert - Not Alarmed!"

Our combined paranoia evaporated instantly, and my then current s**tbox of a fridge looked instantly ... glamorous.

[erlik]

"Do we get reports of these things happening in other places? (Europe for instance)"

Well, yes. I know of two in Croatia.

One was a guy who was photographing somewhere in the centre of Zagreb. Our exalted prime minister came walking down the street and the guy snapped a photo or two. And then the security came and ordered him to erase the photo(s). He complied.

The other was an acquaintance of mine who wanted to photograph _offices_ of a pharmaceutical company from across the street. And then a security guy came to harass him and tell him he was not allowed to take photos of the building. My acquaintance withdrew. Hmmmm, I might try to go there. The offices look interesting in low light/dark cause the windows are lit blue and the sign with the name is orange...

[Robert Roaldi]

For some reason the story about being harassed by private security when taking photos of a building from across the street irritates me a lot more than it reasonably should.

Why should a corporation assume that they have any special rights in the public domain. Where did they get the idea that they are special and that authority extends beyond their filing cabinets? Why don't the authorities, the real authorities, the ones who answer to us in the ballot box, why aren't they ALL OVER these guys for behaving like that?

What are we and our elected officials afraid of, exactly? Who is the boss here?