red light cameras

hi, i was driving down towards some lights today and they had a small black rectangular box on top of them, the light turned amber and i wouldn’t have been able to stop before the line so i put my foot down and went past it. is that a red light traffic camera?

It is not, no. Red light cameras don't sit in top of the lights themselves, they sit on their own pole a short distance away. This is so the photos they take can include the traffic light and your car in the shot. (If that sat on top of the lights, they could never include the lights themselves in the photo).

Also note that, "AMBER means ‘Stop’ at the stop line. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident" (source).

It sounds like you were in the "to pull up might cause an accident" category.

so do the red light cameras look like speed cameras but they’re just smaller and more rectangular?