So, I am sitting here in EWR waiting for my flight to Montreal when I say, of all the airports I have been to in the past year with my Hasselblad camera, what were some memorable moments? Which airports have a film friendly attitude, etc ... OK, so from memory in no particular order over the past year, anything strange indicated, otherwise nothing memorable:


YYZ Toronto's Lester Pearson
YUL Montreal's Pierre Trudeau airport
LGA New York's Laguardia
EWR Newark
JFK New York
PIT Pittsburgh
PHL Philadephia
ORD Chicago's O'Hare
LAX Los Angeles - though the 'puffer' was neat to watch when you're behind a cute lady with a short skirt!
ONT Ontario, CA
LAS McCarran in Las Vegas
HVN New Haven Tweed - I didn't even know I had a local airport until last year!
HPN Small, tiny airport in Westchester County, NY
BDL Bradley in Springfield - use to do the sniffer on my camera, now they don't bother.
PVD Providence's TF Green - did a sniffer test the last time, but that was maybe over a year ago.
SFO San Francisco
CMH Columbus
SAN San Diego
DFW Dallas
OGG Maui - were more interested in checking for fruits and vegetables than camera gear and film
CUN Cancun opened my bag and looked through my Hassey with deep interest and amazement
PVR Peurto Vallarta - ditto to Cancun
VRA Varadero, Cuba - opened the bag, thoroughly looked at the camera and asked me to remove the lens from the body, looked through the lens
DXB Dubai - also checked my Hassey and the guys asked me for my Press credentials! Told him I was a hobbyist and there for the fun after my business meetings. He seemed very impressed with the camera wanted to know where to buy them.
FRA Frankfurt
STL St Louis
AZO Kalamazoo - private jet area
DTW Detroit
YIP Willow Run Airport for private jets in Yipsilanti near Ann Arbor, MI
6N5 East 34th Street Heliport in NYC
SUS Spirit of St Louis business aviation center - for private jets, in Chesterfield, MO
GON Groton, CT private jet and helicopter airport
BUR Bob Hope airport in Burbank, CA
MMU Morristown, NJ
LHR London Heathrow - did the sniffer and opened the bag to inspect the camera by hand
NRT Tokyo
CWA Wisconsin
CDG Charles de Gaulle in Paris
JAX Jacksonville
TPA Tampa
MIA Miami
ATL Atlanta

All in all, carrying 120 size film and my big yellow Hassey camera through all these airports as carry on luggage has been pretty uneventful to me, the camera or the film.

Regards, Art.

OAK - Oakland, CA. film friendly but dumb.

Me: "May I have a physical inspection of this film please?"
TSA: "Sure. No problem. Let me get somebody to help you."

an other TSA guy takes the boxes of 4x5 sheet film and starts to scrutinize the one that has a broken seal.

Me: "There's film in that box."
TSA guy: "I know. I'm not dumb." Starts opening the box as he walks away...



SFO: San Francisco: Never any problems. Just way too busy most of the time.

LAX: Los Angeles, CA - they've seen it all and aren't the least bit interested...unless your panties are showing.

Tulsa, Oklahoma: No issues at all. Very friendly.

OAK - Oakland, CA. film friendly but dumb.

Me: "May have a physical inspection of this film please?"
TSA: "Sure. No problem. Let me get somebody to help you."

The other guys takes the boxes of 4x5 sheet film and starts to scrutinize the one that has a broken seal.

Me: "There's film in that box."
TSA guy: "I know. I'm not dumb." Starts opening the box as he walks away...


In conversation with a senior airport security officer last month I was told I'd be what surprised what they do find inside film boxes and 35mm cassettes, instead of film.

It's why UK airports scan all film regardless.

Ian

In conversation with a senior airport security officer last month I was told I'd be what surprised what they do find inside film boxes and 35mm cassettes, instead of film.

It's why UK airports scan all film regardless.

Ian

I am happy to have them open the box and feel around...just as long as they do it in a changing bag (which I always have at the ready).

Speaking of the UK...

London Heathrow: Friendly and polite but, ridiculous! At one point they insit that you may only have one carry on item...this is an international flight that just arrived from SFO. Everybody had two. What are we supposed to do? Leave one on the floor in the terminal? You may not pass this point with more than one carry on item!

Madrid Spain. Most unfriendly place I've ever been....period. Still, they have Picasso's Guernica.

London Heathrow: Friendly and polite but, ridiculous! At one point they insit that you may only have one carry on item...this is an international flight that just arrived from SFO.
Any US airport: Unfriendly and rude but, ridiculous! They want to fingerprint you like a common criminal to allegedly track you in and out of the country but then can't be arsed to actually verify the prints on the way out, rendering the whole exercise nothing more than Security Theatre... This is an international flight that just arrived from, well, anywhere.


The one-item-of-handluggage thing was an over-the-top reaction, but it was to a specific terrorist threat at that time. You have to wonder what they're meant to do to get it right sometimes... If your airline didn't inform you that all UK airports permitted only one item of handluggage at that time, your beef is with the airline (and SFO airport who shouldn't have let you board a flight to the UK with 2 items.)

UK BAA airports 9Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birminham etc) now allow 2 bags on most flights, one case & a laptop case. However not all airlines allow 2 pieces of hand luggage.

2 years ago there was a complete ban on all hand luggage. The UK has had attacks on airports.

Baggage restrictions particularly weights differ from airline to airline, and on the return trip back to Turkey from South America, we suddenly found our baggage was very over-weight at Istanbul Airport, for an internal flight home.

I have to agree with Tim, all US airports are exceptionally rude to non US citizens when you enter the country. In fact extremely offensive.

Ian

Any US airport: Unfriendly and rude but, ridiculous! They want to fingerprint you like a common criminal to allegedly track you in and out of the country but then can't be arsed to actually verify the prints on the way out, rendering the whole exercise nothing more than Security Theatre... This is an international flight that just arrived from, well, anywhere.


Yes, I have to agree with you. Our whole immigration and naturalization system in this country is an completely absurd mess. And the whole security threat bull crap is getting really old. But, perhaps we shouldn't go there.

Well, on my last trip through DeGaulle several years back, a bomb went off in the terminal on the lower deck. I was going up the escalator to the second floor at the time. I also saw the Gendarmes strip one man to his shorts and when he began protesting they clubbed him senseless and dragged him off to a private room. He left a trail of blood behind on the floor. So, things can be worse than described here so far! The guy running the X-Ray told me that I had a very good vintage wine in my luggage. He could identify the vintner by the X-Ray image.

PE

Yes, I have to agree with you. Our whole immigration and naturalization system in this country is an completely absurd mess. And the whole security threat bull crap is getting really old. But, perhaps we shouldn't go there.
To be honest, I'd mind less if we didn't also have to put up with constant TV adverts from Governor Arnie telling us how much we want to visit and how welcome we are. (Although Arnie's ads are marginally less annoying than the federal government's ones, to be fair.)


(Actually, what really annoys me is that San Francisco and New York are two of my favourite places; but I'll be buggered if I'm going through the US-VISIT charade any more than is unavoidable, so to be frank I'm finding other less unwelcoming places to go - like former soviet states, ironically enough.)

Anyone with stories leaving China? I would like to know because I may be going there next year.

To be honest, I'd mind less if we didn't also have to put up with constant TV adverts from Governor Arnie telling us how much we want to visit and how welcome we are. (Although Arnie's ads are marginally less annoying than the federal government's ones, to be fair.)


(Actually, what really annoys me is that San Francisco and New York are two of my favourite places; but I'll be buggered if I'm going through the US-VISIT charade any more than is unavoidable, so to be frank I'm finding other less unwelcoming places to go - like former soviet states, ironically enough.)

Ah, come on...ya just gotta love Ahhnold...The Governator! :)

Seriously though, I am sorry our country is so messed up. Our federal government has gone mad. It'll get better. I hope.

SJU - San Juan, PR. Never had a problem getting film hand checked. TSA agents are all pretty polite and professional. If you fly Delta, you'll go through the puffer machine.

ATL - Atlanta Hartsfield. Never had any problems with film hand checks. The lines move faster than you would think when you first see them. Nervous moments at luggage carousels until I learned that my tripod case goes to a special area for "long" luggage.

Boston Logan: Will do a hand check on film but will wipe and sniff every single roll and unwrap every single roll of 120.

I fly every week, mostly in and out of Boston Logan (BOS), Newark/New York Liberty (EWR), and Montreal Trudeau (YUL). I always carry film with me, and have not yet been refused hand check of film. I do have to insist to talk to a "supervisor" a few times. One TSA agent did open a box 0f 4x5 film while I was keeping an eye on another one who was opening my 4x5 camera. A few times (once in Toronto), they took me in a private room to interview me and search my luggage; I think these incidents are unrelated to request for film hand check though.

- Phong

I've never bothered with a hand check, I mail my film ahead of time usually. Usually there's a few rolls of Pan F+ in my bag though.

Melbourne, Australia: Fine
Adelaide, Australia: Fine, were more concerned with the walking stick I was toting.
San Francisco: Stopped it on the X-ray, swabbed the bag for bomb residue, called me "sir" a lot...Speed Graphic caught them off-guard, I expect.
Anchorage, Alaska: No concerns
Las Vegas, Nevada: Long lines, but no concerns.
Sydney, Australia: No concerns, and astoundingly friendly. Went through the security check after customs back into the country, and the chap manning the x-ray gave me a grin and apoligised that it was "No purple dinosaur day", when he saw the large brontosaurus a friend had sent back with me. Saved my yellow filter too when it came out of my bag in the scanner. Good to be home.

Personally I've been more worred about my belt and shoes than I have ever been about my cameras. Time to start flying in the nude.

CDG, Paris:
don't bother asking for hand inspection. It is going to go through the scanner, no matter how good your french happens to be. That said, they scanned rolls of Tmax 3200 and I had no apparent damage. Probably got more fog on the 8 hour high altitude flight from the gamma ray exposure.

Anything with the Paris Airport? Good that the TO airport is alright. I'll be going soon and am gonna ask for a hand inspection.

Just remember that outside the US virtually all International airports will not offer a hand check of film, it all has to go through the scanners.

This is for 2 reasons, their machines are totally film safe, and secondly they don't have the staff or time available for unnecessary special checks.

Ian

I thought that all American airports were unfriendly but having just returned from Prague yesterday I have to modify my opinion. I was told that unless everything in my possesion went through the xray I'd be detained. Consequently, wallets, watches, shoes, belts etc had to go into a plastic box to be xrayed while the sullen security people frisked you. Needless to say I'll never return even though I enjoyed visiting a most beautiful city.

I thought that all American airports were unfriendly but having just returned from Prague yesterday I have to modify my opinion. I was told that unless everything in my possesion went through the xray I'd be detained. Consequently, wallets, watches, shoes, belts etc had to go into a plastic box to be xrayed while the sullen security people frisked you. Needless to say I'll never return even though I enjoyed visiting a most beautiful city.

So how did you escape the UK Les ? That's exactly the same as all UK airports, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Chile etc etc !! and even Belgium !!

Ian

So how did you escape the UK Les ? That's exactly the same as all UK airports, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Chile etc etc !! and even Belgium !!

Ian

Ian, I've never had any problems in UK airports either in leaving or entering the country. I have deliberately avoided travelling in Europe for no other reason than I totally disagree with the EU so as a matter of principle I don't go. I know I sound like a sad old man but I guess I am for I believe in sticking to principles. :p:rolleyes:

I've yet to visit South America although I hope to do so before I get too much older so I cannot comment on security in those countries.

As a matter of interest I visited the Kadoulka Exhibition of photographs from the Prague Invasion. It is a wonderful documentary of a hellish time in the city but the prints were digital and not very good, oversharpened mainly, but very powerful images. He was giving a press conference but sadly as I can only speak Geordie I didn't understand a word he said. :) I'd recommend that you see it when you can even if the prints are not as good as the should be.

Les, at all airports I now already stick all my possessions in a large clear plastic bag, I prepare just before I arrive, take off my belt just before security before they ask, it's mainly UK airports that want certain types of shoes removed - as I always wear my heaviest, the walking boots it them :D

There's stunning photography in South America, in Peru I was extremely impressed, one show was in lit display boxes in a park in Lima, and it was incredible how virtually everyone stopped and looked and they spent time looking. It might be a poor country but the people are culturally rich and appreciative, how unlike Europe & the US.

Unfortunately another exhibition with superb images was ruined by poor digital prints full of artifacts- you could see areas of pixels. It had been shot on film !!!

Are you spelling Josef Koudelka incorrectly as "Kadoulka" or do you mean someone else :D

I've seen a lot of his work, I think in Paris as well as the UK and it's superb. I have an amazing little book of Czech photography from the war and saw the Exhibition in Scotland.

Ian

Are you spelling Josef Koudelka incorrectly as "Kadoulka" or do you mean someone else :D

I've seen a lot of his work, I think in Paris as well as the UK and it's superb. I have an amazing little book of Czech photography from the war and saw the Exhibition in Scotland.

Ian

Incorrect spelling Ian :(

TFGreen in Warwick, RI (well, known as Providence, but it's really in Warwick) - no real problems with film, but they don't understand 120 and would only handcheck it if it's not in the foil wrapper. They said it could be faked, yet told me to leave it in the box next time. ??? Isn't the box easier to reseal after putting something besides film in it?

Missoula, MT - perfectly fine in 2006, the TSA guy checking my film was also a photographer (he liked his Mamiya better than the Bronica he tried once).

Never bother with hand checks, they dont do them in a lot of places, and having had to go through the hellish line-up all I want to do in the US is get through. A roll of TriX that had been through about 25 xray mahcines before I got round to exposing a processing it (ok so i overpack on film) had some increase in fog but still usable. Kit is usually Fuji medium format or Crown graphic.

My experience elsewise

BKK Bangkok no problem, lots of smiles
SIN Singapore ditto no smiles
PIT pittsburgh likewise
LAX grumpy as hell and a total shambles of an airport.
SYD sydney ok
ADL Adelaide same
HKK Hong kong brusque, no problem, no smiles
ORD Chicago generic US experience
LHR Heathrow see LAX and multiply by factor of 2
Geneva Swiss efficiency and politness on display
Da Vinci Rome Italian charm, verve, and inefficency on display
Istanbul: fine

I fly around a bit, mostly CONUS.

Here's what I've got:

NSET

(Never the Same Experience Twice)

In the same airports at different times:

Some times I'm treated like I'm ticking- puffed, wanded, debelted, unshod, and felt up like a Catholic school girl.

Other times, they send me through and give me a Hurumf!

There really appears to be no ryme or reason for either behavior.

Of course, I feel better, everything being completely safe nowadays and all.

People (including me) love to pick on the TSA, and while I have experienced no dearth of inanity with them, credit is also due to the average moronic American traveler, who behave as if they can't read, are personally special, and travel with enough mundane kit to conquer Everest.

By contrast, during my last jaunt to the EU, I found the security thorough, and fast, with a good understanding by both the public, and the agents.