Here is a little conversation I had today with a Airport Operations (AO) person across the fence while I was on Palm Springs Air Museum property shooting pictures of airplanes.
AO: Hello
Me: Hi
AO: What are you doing here?
Me: I'm an aviation enthusiast, just taking pictures of airplanes
AO: You can't do that
Me: What do you mean?
AO: You can't take pictures here
Me: Why is that? Isn't this private property?
AO: You just can't!
AO: Are you with the Museum?
Me: No,I'm a patron of the museum, I come here all the time
AO: Do you have permission from the museum to be here?
Me: Yes I do (museum property is open to the public, permission is implied unless revoked)
AO: What's your name?
Me: Allen
AO: I'll be calling the museum to check your story
Me: (silently in my head) What a f%&#ing B*%#h
So, immediately following this exchange with the AO person who clearly knows nothing about the law I went into the museum and had a meeting with Richard Solomon, the Operations Manager for the Palm Springs Air Museum. Richard was a complete gentleman and he assured me that I was welcome any time to shoot photos from the museum property. Armed with this knowledge (I already knew this, I just wanted to get formal "permission" from the museum management) I called Airport Operations and spoke to a supervisor and informed him that he has an employee that is making up laws and regulations that infringe on the rights of the public. The AO manger was sympathetic and very apologetic and said he would educate the employee on photographer's rights.
As tired as I am of getting hassled for doing something totally legal, over and over again, I am starting to feel that people are starting to understand and educate their employees on our rights. So, in the end this encounter was fairly positive once I got past the anger of being harassed again.
Stand up for your rights! It's the only way these people will ever become educated.
P.S. Thankfully the AO person did not mention "9/11" or I'm sure I would have vomited right there in front of her. I am so tired of hearing that quoted as an excuse for limiting people's rights and for making up imaginary laws and regulations. Just for the record, I'm pretty sure that no cameras were used in the horrible events of 9/11/2001.
