Samantha, July 10, 2011, RR tracks, Ohio.

When I created this image 14 years ago this evening, shooting on railroad tracks was popular and still pretty much an accepted thing. I have several railroad track images in my collection. All kinds of professional and amateur photographers created images on railroad tracks. A Google image search will turn up hundreds of photos. Careful photographers chose long, straight sections of track with great visibility and they paid attention.

As the practice became more and more popular, things got out of hand. People took serious chances and exercised no precautions. Train engineers reported dangerous situations and near misses. Photo magazines posted warning articles. Ironically, they went out and created images of people on railroad tracks to illustrate the articles. A lot of photographers, myself included, heeded the warnings and quit shooting on railroad tracks. 

Samantha, July 10, 2011, RR tracks, Ohio.

But the practice continued and people took more and more chances. People were killed while shooting on railroad tracks. More warnings went out. Railroads posted notices saying the tracks are private property and shooting on them is illegal.

But people continued to take chances. In April 2017, just weeks after a railroad track death, National Geographic posted a portrait taken on railroad tracks on their instagram account. While some people liked the image, NatGeo got a lot of heat for that image. The photo was viewed by a lot of people as an example of “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Just don’t do it.

Link

Photographers Angry with Nat Geo for Posting Train Track Photo – PetaPixel