Tuesday, March 14, 2017

I Used to be a Photographer...


I am tired of cleaning up snow.  I am tired of photographing snow.  So I am going to give you all a treat, and post a REAL photograph.  This is one photograph from a story I shot about LaGuardia Airport for the Sunday magazine back around 1987.  It was a story on how the airport was too small, and the runways were too short and there were always delays because there were too many flights coming and going.  The point was also made that pilots had little room for error when taking off and landing.  You had to be at the top of your game here.  Anyhow, I called LaGuardia tower on the phone and said I wanted to come take photographs from the air.  I was flying a Cessna 172 and after talking to the tower controllers, I was directed to fly right over top of the airport, and was put in a holding pattern over the field, and I just flew around and around and took pictures looking down at the airport.  It was really a cool thing to get to do, and I think that this is one of my great photos!

5 comments:

  1. You were so lucky to be able to fly around the airport and take photos. And, by the way, you still are a photographer!!! bsk

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  2. In today's world I wonder if you could take a fly over photo like this.

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  3. Very interesting view. I, too, wonder if you could get permission these days to fly above the airport like that. Trace

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  4. A year or so after 9/11 I was in a chartered helicopter flying over JFK airport, doing aerial photographs. I forget what that story was about but there was no problem getting permission. I believe that if I was employed by the newspaper, I would still be able to do this. Perhaps these days I might have to have some security people check me out, and have me show identification at the airport before boarding the aircraft and taking off.

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