When People Don't Understand What You're Doing

I had an interesting experience at last Sunday's monthly Airport Day at Fullerton Airport.

An "older" gentleman walked up to me while I was on the tarmac photographing planes that I've never seen before at Fullerton, and he said to me that a bunch of the pilots were speculating about what I was up to, since I only seemed to be photographing the "tails" of each aircraft.

Well, I reassured this gentleman that I photographed these aircraft from every angle -- front, center, and tail -- and that I posted these photos to Airport-Data. com. I asked the gentleman if he had ever heard of this Website and he replied that he hadn't. Now, this is my first incredulous question. How can you be an F-ing pilot and not know about A-D.com?

Now I will credit this older gentleman. He told me that he said to the other pilots that they should simply walk up to me and ask me what I was up to. At least he had the "cahones" to do so.

Frankly, I don't give a crap about what anyone thinks about my activities, just as long as I'm doing nothing illegal. And as long as the powers that be at Fullerton Airport throw open the gates every second Sunday of the month, then I feel free to photograph whatever the "F" I feel like photographing. Just as long as I don't stray onto a taxiway or runway 6/24.

This brings up a related topic. I have a number of people ask me if I'm a pilot. When I tell them no, they're always puzzled as to why I'd be hanging out at an airport photographing airplanes. When I tell them that I'm no different than the NASCAR fan who has never sat behind the wheel of a racecar that can go 200 mph, or the train fanatic who has never piloted a Burlington Northern and Santa Fe locomotive, these folks give me a puzzled look. So my second incredulous question is, why can't pilots and other airport related people understand that there are other people who dig what they do, but who really have no desire to spend $10,000 to actually learn to do what they do.

I, for one, have no desire to ever fly in a single engine prop job. The "smallest" aircraft I've ever flown in is a BAe 146. Yet, I'm still interested in photographing these single and twin engine GA aircraft. Yet, a lot of these airport folks just don't seem to understand my presence at the airport four or five times a month.

david

let me explain what some people are thinking about your pic's, as the owners son of one of the aircraft you photographed. as someone stated earlier they google the tail number and see themselves, there wife,family members getting out of the aircraft or landing or whatever the situation is at different airports in some cases. they think to themselves, WTF! is someone following me? why would someone be taking pictures of my plane and posting it on the Internet. its kind of creepy when you first see it,you know the whole big-brother watching you kind of thing .they are not expecting to see this kind or amount of info about there possessions displayed on the net,its kind of a shock seeing it the first time.that is why they are a little apprehensive about what you are doing.i don't think they realize that people have all different kinds of hobbies and this just happens to be yours. david i understand your hobby but im a little in the dark about why AD is collecting this data,possibly ill find out if i look around here a little.

arsilva32 :

david

let me explain what some people are thinking about your pic's, as the owners son of one of the aircraft you photographed. as someone stated earlier they google the tail number and see themselves, there wife,family members getting out of the aircraft or landing or whatever the situation is at different airports in some cases. they think to themselves, WTF! is someone following me? why would someone be taking pictures of my plane and posting it on the Internet. its kind of creepy when you first see it,you know the whole big-brother watching you kind of thing .they are not expecting to see this kind or amount of info about there possessions displayed on the net,its kind of a shock seeing it the first time.that is why they are a little apprehensive about what you are doing.i don't think they realize that people have all different kinds of hobbies and this just happens to be yours. david i understand your hobby but im a little in the dark about why AD is collecting this data,possibly ill find out if i look around here a little.

arsilva32 :

Interesting to hear the other side of the camera lens.

Arsilva32, thank you for your comment. I agree. If I saw someone taking pictures of my family, I would be distressed as well.

As photographers of aircraft, we need to be respectful of others feelings, and also abide by their wishes if they do not want photos of their aircraft posted. (in my opinion).

The purpose of this site is to share photos of aircraft, as a hobby. Not about being Big Brother or stalking. It should be a positive experience for all involved.

As photographers of aviation, we have a responsibility to be respectful while enjoying our hobby.

We should explain what we are doing when asked, and abide by the wishes of those who own these great aircraft if they do not want to be posted.

It is about having fun and (like birdwatching) just a hobby. This site just makes it easier to catalog what we have seen. But we can not make this a negative experience for others.

Just my opinion.

Thanks again for your post Arsilva32!

Best Regards,

Bluedharma

Arsilva32,

Thanks for coming on the board and posting your perspective. It is only by conversation that we can begin to understand each other. Life would be a whole lot easier if there was only more understanding.

This is on the only site on the web that is "collecting data". There is no deep dark secret. It's like Bluedharma said...it's like bird watching. There are many sites on line that folks visit to share their hobby of plane watching.

Some examples.

http://fencecheck.com/

http://www.abpic.co.uk/index.php

http://jetphotos.net/

http://flightaware.com/photos/

http://www.airliners.net/

http://www.airfighters.com/index.php

http://www.planepictures.net/

As to actual DATA without the photos...there are many places on line for that as well...

http://www.joebaugher.com/

http://www.scramble.nl/databases.htm

http://www.airframes.org/

http://www.aerotransport.org/

As for "Big Brother" Well he plays on line too...

: :

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Inquiry.aspx

We are post on Airport-Data for fun! That's the long and short of it....if you think we are nuts here in the USA you should check out our brothers an sisters in Europe....hehe..

Have a great day!

I was talking about this with a friend of mine and we figured there's all kinds of nuts out there!

Yep!

Birders

http://cs.birdwatchingdaily.com/brdcs/media/

"Foamers" Trainspotters that "foam" at the mouth at the mere sight of a train.

http://www.trainorders.com/

Gear Heads.

http://www.carspotting.com/

http://www.carnut.com/

Ship Spotters....

http://www.shipspotting.com/

How about Bridges?

http://www.bridgesite.com/bridgephoto.htm

He he he....Gotta love human nature!

That was a good answer. Just like a guy who goes to a sporting event to watch NHL, Baseball NFL etc - you don't play in the league, or may have never even played the sport for fun on the street but you go because of your interest in watching the sport.

I go to NASCAR events, I have gotten a car up to 150 before - won't say when or where but of course I don't race for sport of even fun (especially with the hunk of junk I am driving now)

You know, having given it further thought, I think what prompted me to make the original post was the comment by the old, retired pilot that the other pilots thought I was simply photographing the "tails" of their aircraft, like I had some sort of fetish about the back ends of aircraft.

Actually if they are pilots, they are probably members of the AOPA and are part of the Airport watch program - unfortunately what we do... to the less educated... seems like a suspicious activity. In this post 9-11 world I guess we gotta get used to it. I doubt these guys would have questioned you prior to 9-11.

I remember back prior to 9-11, when you could get past security without a boarding pass - I used to do the British thing of writing down tail numbers. I would go to DTW all the time and other airports if I had time on trips and walk up and down the gate area and write down tail numbers of the planes, no one looked at me different.

Its good you have a pilot that had some balls actually come up and talk to you, once you explained to him what you were really doing he could go back and tell his buddies you were ok. Often with me, people don't have the balls to talk to me until its a cop or DHS guy.

The only thing I am thinking is maybe they aren't aware of sites like our site, airliners.net, jetphotos etc that pretty much require you to put an N number or some sort of registration number in to post the photo online.

Most of these guys are probably thinking that you are just taking the pictures for personal photos for your own photo collection and wouldn't need the number in that case. For example, I go to the Woodward Dream Cruise up in Detroit and take pictures of classic cars - now this is for personal pictures not to post on the site. I am sure the car owners would look at me suspicious if I just went up to their car and took a picture of its license plate.

That is the only reason why I can think of because they aren't aware these are going online and you need registrations to post these photos.

I look really suspicious with warbirds in that case because usually they have tiny N numbers so I will get a picture of the bird, then go right up to the tail and grab its N number from literally 5 feet away - though no one has questioned me.

It is not always feasible to move up close to check the registration(eg behind a fence,in flight..) so I try to zoom in. Even if it is slightly of focus or badly exposed,at least it gives a better idea of the registration. For in flight,I will try to take a series of photos and hope at least one will have the registration.

I'm a plane-spotter/photographer, and have lived in Phoenix and Chicago. Over the years, I've had a few people at various airports approach me to ask what I was up to. Most of the experiences were positive, with one or two negatives. Here are a few examples:

Post 9-11:

While waiting at PHL to board a flight to PHX, I was taking some photos and writing down tail-numbers. The man sitting next to me appeared very interested in my chosen hobby, and asked me where he could get a copy of the airline fleet-list book I was using. He told me he spent a lot of time traveling, and was looking for something to do between flights.

One afternoon, a police officer approached me on the top of the Terminal 3 parking garage at PHX, and asked me what I was doing. We wound up chatting for about an hour about aviation. He even suggested some other places around the airport for photography!

While photographing planes at GEU one morning, I started talking with one pilot about his plane (a SF260W Warrior), and he asked me if I'd be interested in going for a short hop in it!

Last year, I was spotting/taking photos inside the terminal at MDW. A TSA guy came up to me and asked me (very politely) what I was doing. I told him that I was taking photos and noting the tail-numbers of aircraft. His reply... "No problem. That's OK. Thanks for your time."

At the open-house and airshow at Holloman AFB several years ago, two Air Force cops questioned me about why I was roaming around the ramp photographing the planes and writing down "stuff". (I guess someone had seen me scribbling in my notebook after each shot, and thought I was up to no good.) I showed them the photos and my notebook, and politely pointed out that I wasn't the only person wandering about taking photos. After running my i.d., they got back on their bicycles and rode off.

Pre 9-11:

I was standing by a window at ORD, spotting scope in hand, when a rentacop came up to me and said very curtly "You can't do that here!" My reply to her was "I'm sorry... could you please tell me what it is I'm doing? And then tell me why I can't do it." She just turned and walked away, apparently stumped by my reply.

Incidentally, it took about 6 months after 9-11 for anyone (police, TSA or DHS) to approach me at PHX (where I went almost daily) to ask about my "activities."

Just thought I'd share my experiences with the forum!