Saturday, May 31, 2008

Questioned Again




Compact digital camera. Some people react to it as if I’m walking around with an automatic weapon. Guns and cameras use two completely different modes of shooting. A camera is non-lethal.

Kinda lost and confused. My friend pulls his car into a parking lot on the decommissioned Plattsburgh Air Force Base. He’s trying to find a business in the area. I notice an old building with character. I ask him if he would wait a moment so that I could photograph the abandoned structure with its weatherworn exterior.

I get out, walk over, and start shooting. Another car pulls up next to me, some guy wearing sunglasses. Mr. Shades asks me what I’m doing. I explain that I’m just photographing the peeling paint.

MR. SHADES: “Do you have permission?”

I look at him. Since it was decommissioned, most areas on the base are open to the public.

ME: “I need permission?”

That statement catches him off guard. He explains that he’s a maintenance person who was wondering what I was doing. Since I only have a camera in my hand – no lock pick or crowbar on me – the answer should be obvious.

Mr. Shades drives off. Apparently I don’t need permission.

Now I wonder what’s inside that building. A crashed flying saucer holding Jimmy Hoffa’s skeleton and the answers to the next SAT exam?




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