Risky Photography, Part 2

Position and Hold
Copyright 2007 V1VrV2

Approach Light Perspective
Copyright 2007 V1VrV2

These photos were taken shortly after the one in the previous entry. My goal was to capture the excitement and technical nature of airport operations. And, of course, to not get myself arrested...

Shortly after I took the second photo, a white Chevy Blazer rolled up. The driver, a uniformed officer, wanted to know what I was doing. The smart-aleck part of my brain briefly considered answering, "Looking for signs of intelligent life," but instead I held up my camera and my airline ID and said, "Just taking some artistic photos." He examined my ID and said something like, "Well, don't stay here too long."

The absurdity of this reply was stunning. "Why?" I thought, "Do I look more suspicious with the passage of time? If taking lots of photos of this airport is illegal, is taking only a few of them somehow MORE legal? How long is OK, and at what point do I become a criminal? Isn't this a public street? What the hell are you talking about?"

I also briefly considered telling him that, two hours before, I had landed a Boeing 757 on that very runway, and that there wasn't much I couldn't have already seen in the course of my job.

I didn't say any of it. I smiled and said, "OK." And that's why you're looking at these photos now. Silence is the better part of valor, I guess.