A while back, I was at the Helderberg Escarpment at Thatcher Park. For those who are not familiar, the Helderberg Escarpment is an overlook that gives a fantastic view of Albany and the surrounding counties. Heck, on a clear day you can even see Vermont’s White Mountains.
There’s also a solitary tree that grows between the edge of the outlook and a stone fence. The stone fence is there to keep people from going too close to the cliff’s edge. Believe me. The park does several rescues a year of people who climb the fence and think that it’s cool to pose with the tree as some kewl selfie, not realizing that the ground is slick and you could slide off the cliff at any time.
So anyway … I’m at Thatcher Park, doing some standard photography shoots, when I see it. Two people have stepped over the barrier, and are now sunning themselves under the branches of the tree. A man and a woman. And they’re cuddling under the tree. It’s dangerous and romantic at the same time.
You know what? If they’re stupid enough to try this – I’m going to get a few photos before the park police show up and chase them away.
Let’s try this from another angle.
Part of me was thinking about entering these pictures in competition. But I decided against it. I get that people want to try stuff like this, it’s a feeling that they can flaunt the rules of safety for a little private time. That’s on them. But entering this photo in a show would be akin to encouraging this kind of behavior.
Trust me. It’s just not worth it.
It’s the same ethics as photographing someone who’s standing on railroad tracks. It might make for a cool photo, but railroad tracks are for trains, they’re not for selfies. Same thing with the sides of steep cliffs. Unless you have this desire to cosplay The Gods Must Be Crazy, stay behind the barriers and enjoy the view from a safe distance.
And watch out for errant photographers who might just capture your recklessness – and whose ethics wouldn’t be limited to just showing this picture in a blog.
I’m Chuck Miller, and thanks for attending my TED talk. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
You can’t fix stupid
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Chuck, can you i.d. that small robin’s egg blue dot, in the recess where the trunk forks?
My first guess was simply a hole, revealing the blue sky behind. But it seems too blue to be that.
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Two things: 1) as you know, people have fallen and died from being as idiotic as that couple, and 2) the ONLY time I’ve ever seen/heard the word Escarpment concerns the Helderberg
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I guess I may have a few years on you. I first heard it during (Weissmuller) episodes of Tarzan.
Had no clue what it meant, right over my head, but the word stuck for some reason.
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I used to visit Thacher park on a weekly basis, and every single time I went, it seemed that I would always come across someone who decided to cross the fence along the ridge. My favorite one was someone who wanted to look over the Indian Ladder Trail and climbed over the fence. Some people simply can’t read the warning signs, it seems.
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Nice.
I was thrown out of the park once for stepping over the wall. Nowhere near the edge, but rules is rules, lesson learned.
BTW, the White Mountains? Isn’t that New Hampshire?
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