Ok so myself and my friend Joey Collura were visiting NYC last week, which we had awesome time at JFK on the 11th with all the guys who came out. Thanks again. Anyway, on the 13th, we woke up at 8am, expecting less than perfect weather but hoping for Northeasterly winds for landings on 4. So we got up, took the subway to 125th and Lexington in Manhattan and then the M60 over to LGA. As we got close, we could see landings on 22 and takeoffs on 13. Not our desired configuration so we decided to try the inside of the terminal out for shooting. The weather still wasn't great but I just wanted to get Piedmont at 10am, as Ron Peel tipped us off to. So we get inside, I call Brian Futterman. He gave me directions of where to go exactly and when we got to the top of the escalator, he told me to use the courtesy phone on the wall to call Airport Police and it shouldn't be a problem. So I did. Here was the convo:
Male Officer picks up the phone: "Airport Police!"
Me: "Hello sir. Myself and another photographer are calling to just make you aware we are placed on the third floor in the main terminal near the windows overlooking the Air Canada gates and we will be shooting some pictures for a little while if thats ok with you."
Officer: "Absolutely not. Thats a big negative sir. I'm sorry you cannot be taking pictures past security. If you take pictures from there I'll have to have an officer come and confiscate your camera gear and/or film."
Me: "No sir, we're not past security. We are on top the escalators of the main terminal overlooking the Air Canada gates."
Officer: "Well sorry you cannot be taking pictures from there."
Me: "Well we're visiting from Florida but we have friends who live here and do this quite often. From my understanding, they usually call this extension and talk to you all, and sometimes you all send out an officer to check IDs and that's that. We just want to spend a little time up here this morning getting some pictures of LaGuardia traffic. It's not usually a problem for our friends."
Officer: "Where are you at again sir?"
Me (for the third time): "We are on top the escalators of the main terminal overlooking the Air Canada gates."
Officer: "Stay where you are I'll send an officer over there."
5 minutes later, an black lady officer comes up the escalators, hangs up on a phone call she was on and starts eyeing our cameras and lenses sitting up against the windows and it goes like this:
Lady Officer: "Hello gentleman. What are we doing up here?"
Me: "Hello Officer. My name is Justin Idle. Myself and my friend Joey here are here this morning to take some pictures of LaGuardia Airport traffic. We are up here from Florida and part of the reason we have travelled up here is for this hobby."
Lady Officer: "Well I'm sorry but you all can't be doing this at this airport."
Me: "Well ma'am, it is my understanding that several of our mutual friends through this hobby who live here come to LGA often and have no problems with taking pictures. I only came here through the exact instructions given to me by one of those friends who often visits this location for photography. Why is it they can take the photos with little hassle but you won't let us?"
Lady Officer: "I do not know who gives them authorization sir but you need a permit to be up here shooting pictures."
Me: "Well if not for our sake, for our friend's sake, how does one attain this permit?"
Lady Officer: "Well they'd have to contact Port Authority Offices and get one. But you can't just come up here and take pictures. Not since 9/11."
Joey (under his breath but loud enough for her to hear out of frustration): "Yeah we've heard that excuse before."
Lady Officer (directed at Joey): "IT'S NOT AN EXCUSE!!! THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS!!" (or something to that extent)
Me: "Ma'am you have to understand our disappointment. We have traveled up here from Florida and one of our main goals for this trip was to shoot some photos at LaGuardia. We are supporting the tourism of this city, paying airfare, hotel, transportation costs, and now you're telling us we have to leave. We just endured an hour commute from Manhattan to here just to do this and you're turning us away. What does it hurt just to let us stay? You can run our IDs, we have nothing to hide. We just want to enjoy our hobby."
Lady Officer: "Well I'm sorry but you all have to put your camera gear and away and leave this area."
Me: "Fine."
We pack up our gear and I call Futt. She goes downstairs and 5 min later after I get off the phone with Futt, we go downstairs to see her at the bottom waiting to make sure we came down. We got back on the bus and went back to Manhattan. What a waste. Oh well. That was our LGA experience.
-Justin
Joey, feel free to add anything she said that I might've forgotten about.
Bookmarks