Photo Gear on Airports/Airplanes

[Dave Humphries]

Next I'll be flying from Dusseldorf (Germany) to Londen Heathrow by plane.

Hi Jeroen,

So, a visit to England for a holiday? Staying here long?

Cheers,

[rick55]

There are signs at Heathrow saying no photography.

That should make it simple (but it won't, of course ). If there are no signs somewhere, go ahead and shoot. Of course, if a security guard tells you to stop, he or she will just quote whatever rules, and the lack of signs won't mean anything.

One other point: if you do decide to take pictures somewhere, and a security guard demands your memory card, I would suggest you politely ask to talk to a supervisor. According to this guide to UK photographers' rights, a private party, which would be the security guards, can't confiscate or damage your gear.

The police are apparently a different matter. It says on the second page that Article 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 gives police authority to search and confiscate anything "which could be used in conjunction with terrorism." I expect a police officer would argue that a camera and memory card would fit that definition. Article 44 covers areas where an "authorization" has been given, and I'd bet that Heathrow is included. So if it's police, you'd have to give up your camera, and get it back through the courts, which would be a real pain.

Cheers,
Rick

[benm]

I must look very honest; in recent months I took interior photos at Fiumicino (Rome), De Gaulle (Paris) and half a dozen or more airports in the USA, sometimes directly in view of security personnel. No problems. I guess ignorance is bliss.

[Colin Southern]

Unfortunately, I think a lot of these security guard actions come under the heading of "there's no good reason for it, it's just the way we do it". Can you imagine the following as a security guard returns home at the end of his shift ...

Guard: Hi Honey, I'm home

Wife: How was your day?

Guard: I prevented an act of terrorism and saved hundreds of lives!

Wife: Wow - what happened.

Guard: Well there was this guy with a camera about to take some photos, and I stopped him ...

Wife: Wow - what happened next?

Guard: Um, that's it.

My experiences with airport security is that - right or wrong - they draw a line in the sand and then enforce it with pretty much zero flexability. And even if a photographer managed to successfully fight the system, it still wouldn't set any precident for the next person. I hate to say it, but it would probably take a co-ordinated "sting" to force an issue to the point where their actions either hit their management in the pocket or at least result in a "memo" getting issued ... but I doubt anyone can really be bothered doing that. The key thing is that right or wrong the probably DON'T WANT TO CHANGE ANYTHING.

Personally I'd just ask myself "is there any photo here that is going to be so compelling that I want to go through all of the above just to get"? In my case if I really wanted a shot so badly I'd probably just position a traveling companion and grab a shot with a camera phone or P&S, discreetly. The irony is of course that I'm sure terrorists can get quite adequate shots of anything outside using the likes of Google earth - and I'm sure that inside shots of the likes of airports wouldn't be much of a challenge either.

I'm reminded of a time during my Air Force days when the bosses decided to have a "defender" exercise where they would lock down the base and we would have to try to defend it against a mock attack overnight (ie an all nighter without sleep, oh yeah On one such exercise I was part of a detail that was supposed to defend a helicopter against the SAS (Special Air Service) (our Elite Fighting Troops). We'll we didn't think much of them 'cause we didn't see any of them around our helicopter all night ... but come daybreak there was sticker on it that said "bomb"; they'd snuck onto the base - put the sticker on the aircraft we were guarding - and disappeared into the night - all by creating a simple diversion elsewhere that we all fell for. Like lambs to the slaughter. I suspect that for a terrorist wanting a photo of the inside of LHR or LAX would find it about as easy. But the "lines in the sand" probably give them a sense of boundry / order / security - and personally it doesn't really bother me all that much.

I still smile when I think of the occasion I was prevented from making a return journey with my Swiss Army knife on my belt ... even though I'd made the initial part of my journey (in the other direction) in the cockpit with the flight crew with said knife on my belt for the entire journey.

[Markvetnz]

On my last trip out of Auckland, a security guard spotted my Weatherman in my camera bag. She searched the whole bag and eventually found the offending item in a pocket on the strap of my backpack. She took it out looked at it, saying that she wanted to make sure it wasn't a knife, thought it was only a pair of pliers and then gave it back to me to take on the plane. There are actually 3 knives on the object. Makes a joke of the whole process. I still can't figure out the logic of putting all fluids containers into a small plastic bag. The 100ml limit is strange. Surely it should be all or nothing.

[Colin Southern]

On my last trip out of Auckland, a security guard spotted my Weatherman in my camera bag. She searched the whole bag and eventually found the offending item in a pocket on the strap of my backpack. She took it out looked at it, saying that she wanted to make sure it wasn't a knife, thought it was only a pair of pliers and then gave it back to me to take on the plane. There are actually 3 knives on the object. Makes a joke of the whole process. I still can't figure out the logic of putting all fluids containers into a small plastic bag. The 100ml limit is strange. Surely it should be all or nothing.

To be honest Mark, I really don't have many of the answers. I do wonder if biometric identification would help at all though (say, fingerprints + eye recognition in an ID card with a chip that compares "what they have" (ie the person) with "what they already know" (ie stored on computer).

[JK6065]

Hi Jeroen,

So, a visit to England for a holiday? Staying here long?

Cheers,

No, unfortunately

I'll be in England for about five days.
I'm with my girlfriend and her parents and therefore it won't be that much of a 'photo trip'. But I think I'll travel to England for a 'photo trip' in the future. I would love to capture a lot and maybe meat Cic members.

[Dave Humphries]

No, unfortunately

I'll be in England for about five days.
I'm with my girlfriend and her parents and therefore it won't be that much of a 'photo trip'. But I think I'll travel to England for a 'photo trip' in the future. I would love to capture a lot and maybe meat Cic members.

It is a shame it s not long, but I'd be surprised if your girlfriend's parents didn't take you to a few places to show you what England is like, so don't leave the camera behind.

[timo2]

On my last trip out of Auckland, a security guard spotted my Weatherman in my camera bag. She searched the whole bag and eventually found the offending item in a pocket on the strap of my backpack. She took it out looked at it, saying that she wanted to make sure it wasn't a knife, thought it was only a pair of pliers and then gave it back to me to take on the plane. There are actually 3 knives on the object. Makes a joke of the whole process. I still can't figure out the logic of putting all fluids containers into a small plastic bag. The 100ml limit is strange. Surely it should be all or nothing.

Getting people to throw away their water bottles and buy another one airside is good business.

I was travelling last week and in light of this thread I thought I’d see how far I could get.

I took loads of pics inside Gatwick, not being discrete at all. A security guy came up to me and rather than ask me what I was doing, he was more interested in asking me what model my camera was and we chatted for a good ten minutes about photography.

Aboard the plane, I talked to the captain and he invited me into the cockpit of the Airbus to take some pics and we talked about the new TFT screen instrumentation.

Maybe I have an honest face :-)

[Colin Southern]

Aboard the plane, I talked to the captain and he invited me into the cockpit of the Airbus to take some pics and we talked about the new TFT screen instrumentation.

Excellent - so where are the pics! (waiting waiting waiting!).

[timo2]

Here’s a couple:

[Colin Southern]

Thanks Tim,

For some reason I just never get sick of cockpit photos.