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Family of camera assistant killed while shooting on train tracks awarded over $11 million

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Midnight Rider was to be a biographical movie on the journey of Gregg Allman. From struggling artist to the eventual success of the Allman Brothers Band. Then the realisation that he needs to get clean or risk losing his life. It was tragically ironic, then, that filming for this movie actually did cause somebody to lose their life.

On February 20th, 2014, 27 year old camera assistant, Sarah Jones, was hit and killed by a train while filming on tracks. After a three year legal battle, a Savannah court yesterday awarded Jones’ family with $11.2 million. Oddly, though, the court determined that CSX, the train company, are liable for 35% of that, or around $3.92 million.

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You really can’t hear trains until they’re almost right on top of you

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It’s that time of year again. It’s warming up, the sun’s coming back, and people are going outside to shoot more portraits. And as often happens when we reach this time of year, some of those portrait sessions happen on train tracks. And occasionally, people get killed by trains while shooting on those tracks.

TODAY investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen wanted to find out just how difficult it was to hear a train coming up behind you. So, he went and did exactly that. This report shows that even with huge freight trains, you can’t hear them until they’re almost on top of you. By the time you’d turned realised what it was and turned your head round to see it, it would probably already be too late.

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Student from Navasota killed by train while taking photos

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This Friday, a terrible accident happened because of a reckless photo shoot. A 19-year-old Blinn student and photographer was killed by a train while taking photos in Navasota, Texas. Fredzania Thompson was shooting along the train tracks when she was hit by a Union Pacific train.

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Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon and Photographer, Dies at 86

Antony Armstrong-Jones, the Earl of Snowdon and Princess Margaret’s former husband, passed away today at his home in London at the age of 86.

Apart from being the Queen’s (former) brother-in-law, he was also an inventor, photographer and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Despite his divorce from Princess Margaret, he continued to take photos of the Royal family and the Queen herself.

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Dead body discovered during factory fashion shoot – group carried on shooting then went for pizza

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There are things more important than worrying about when you’re light’s going to fade. Finding a dead body at the location you’d chosen to use for a photo shoot is one of them. At least, one would think so. Apparently not for one bunch of models and their photographer. After discovering the body of 27 year old Declan Noonan, the group of eight carried on shooting for six hours.

They then went on to go and eat pizza at the local Papa John’s restaurant. It wasn’t until 1am that one of them called the police to inform them that they’d found a body. One of the models, Max Dos Santos Liete, who was 17 at the time attempted to justify their actions by saying that the body “wasn’t going anywhere”.

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Daredevil instagram star dies train surfing in New York

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“Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking Instagram account” seems to be the mantra these days. The trend of doing whatever it takes to get the shot with little thought for personal safety has risen tremendously over the last couple of years. One such person was photographer Christopher Serrano, who died on Wednesday while attempting to “train surf”. Serrano also went by the name HeavyMinds on Instagram where he has over 107,000 followers.

The New York Post reports that he had been riding the F Train in Brooklyn with a female friend around 5am. He went between two of the subway cars, where he began to scale the outside of the train. Investigators told NYP that Serrano may have been clipped by something while on the outside of the train. Police found Serrano lying dead on the track.

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Dutch photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans shot dead by sniper in Libya

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An ISIS sniper is reported to have fatally shot Dutch photojournalist, Jeroen Oerlemans. The Guardian reports that the shooting took place in Sirte, a city over which ISIS have been fighting to control for a year. Oerlemans had been there covering the ongoing conflict in Libya for Belgian publication, Knack.

Eike den Hertog of the Beeldunie photo agency said of Oerlemans, “He wasn’t a cowboy. He was prudent, and very smart”. Hertog has worked with Oerlemans for much of the last twenty years. Oerlemans was scheduled to return home on Monday.

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NPR Photographer David Gilkey killed in Afghanistan in Taliban ambush

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American photojournalist David Gilkey, on assignment for NPR, alongside interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna, were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday in a Taliban ambush, according to reports from the New York Times.  NPR has also confirmed the deaths.

Considered one of the best photojournalists in the world, Gilkey received an array of awards including a George Polk Award in 2010, a national News and Documentary Emmy in 2007, and dozens of distinctions from the White House News Photographeras Association, including 2011 Still Photographer of the Year.

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Founder of Luminous-Landscape, Michael Reichmann, dies aged 71

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It is a sad day for the photography community as we report that Michael Reichmann, the founder of Luminous-Landscape, has died aged 71 after a long battle with cancer.

Having started Luminous-Landscape 17 years ago with good friend, Chris Sanderson, the site has grown to become one of the largest and most respected photography resources on the web.

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