Drones: No Fly Zones
This past Friday I was held hostage by two federal employees while I awaited the police to arrive for legally flying a drone to photograph the property I was hired to capture. This was my first real issue while flying and making photographs for a client. In the past year I have never had a single negative interaction while flying. Often times people think its cool and are fascinated. I am usually flooded with questions. Cops, cops love seeing it fly and always have something comical to say about them or just want to observe it in action. Unfortunately there are people who make it increasingly harder to fly without negative reactions.
My client hired me to photograph the exterior of nearly a dozen properties they own spread out through parts of the Boston area. Part of the job required several properties in the Portrland area of Maine. While some of the properties could benefit from aerial photographs, not all of them would. On Friday I arrived at the 3rd property around 1:30 and discovered that the building was atop a small incline. Not quite a hill, a far cry from a mountain, but an incline of a couple feet from the road. Perfect. I could put the drone up for a few seconds and capture a few shots at the same level or a few feet from above.
I parked my car off the property next to a vacant building just blow the sloped driveway. I powered up, took flight and flew for no more than 5 minutes. I placed the drone back in the car. Moments later a white trucked pulled up and I was greeted with, "what are you doing?" Instead of walking down the man was driven down to speak with me. His tone was of annoyance and general attitude. I turned and responded with, "Photographing the exterior of the building on behalf of my client who owns it." He asked for a business card. "Right here I said," as I pointed down to the driver side passenger door. I have a set of black magnets that match my black car on the side. My business name and phone number as well as website are written in vinyl. After another half dozen questions of who, why, where are they from, they drove back up the bunny hill of a driveway and parked the truck. I followed and parked my car off to the side.
I grabbed my camera, exited, and walked the length of the building and made a few photographs. I turned and began walking back to my car. The same gent who initially questioned me was now with a portly, shorter gent who did not look happy. He turned and walked right up to me with an abrasive demand, "I want to see some business id or you are not leaving here." I said "no." I kept walking towards my car. By this point I became uncomfortable. An agitate federal employee and his underling were surrounding me with questions. I had explained more than once who the client was, who hired me, where they were from. Mr. Portly demanded to see the emails. Again I said, " no, those are confidential." He was not happy. Between his demands and his agitation he threatened to take my personal possessions. "We will confiscate your stuff." "No you will not, I replied firmly. Now I was pissed.
It was one thing to question me, it was another thing to threaten to steal my equipment. Throughly upset I was now in a position to be more defensive. Mr. Portly was not thinking clearly. I had explained by this point, and to his underling, who had hired me and where they were from. It took me a few minutes to find a phone number in the emails. I happily provided them with the number. Had Mr. Portly bothered to call the immediate property manager, the situation would not have gotten worse, and did it get worse. Mr. Portly grew more agitated that he couldn't into my emails, was told no to ceasing my equipment, and was upset that he was not informed that this was supposed to happen. I explained that I was hired to be there and everyone was to be notified. I tried to explain that it was out of my control if he was not notified and that was not something I was supposed to do. Mr. Portly then proceeded to boss his underling around, "take a picture of his car, take his license plate number, don't let him leave." Mr. Portly was getting nowhere with his demands and frustrations. "I WILL call the cops, you are trespassing." "Go ahead, call the cops, I already told you I was hired to be here." Mr. Portly's underling stood close by and watched as I stood against my car.
It must have been the 4th time he asked me, "well who hired you?" "I already told you, you can call them too." Within a few minutes my client called me back and asked, "are you being held hostage?" "Why yes I am," I said. They told me they were going to call Mr. Portly and get it taken care of. We hung up. Two minutes later a police officer arrived. I explained to him why I was there, willfully offered to show the emails and the list of properties I had in town as well as around the area. Satisfied with what I showed him he strode up to Mr. Portly and told him what he had seen. Sarcastically I overheard Mr. Portly say, "I asked him to see those."
After a few moments of speaking, the officer came back up to me and told me, "they do not own the property and are renters. Since they are renters and can control who comes on the property, they do not want you here." "That is fine. I was asked to be here and I understand they do not want me here and I will leave." "Alright, you are free to go." I turned around, swung open the door, got in, and backed out. The officer followed me out on to the main road and watched me disappear.
My client called me back and asked if I was still being held hostage. I had been let go by the police and explained how the rest of the situation had gone down. On their end they received a bit of backlash. While Mr. Portly was operating within his rights to inquire why someone was on the premise and their motives, he took a simple thing and erupted it into a much unneeded situation. My client was very apologetic. Mr. Portly and his underling are federal employees and did a great job of upsetting people over a very small and well explained matter. As I keep saying and keep thinking, if he had called the immediate property manager, they would have clearly explained why I was there. Had that happened, two federal employees would not have held me hostage and threatened to steal my property.
When you are out in the field, keep phone the contact information of the people who hired you on hand. If you have some form of contract, keep they available as well. It is very crucial that you know where to fly and where not to fly. Always exercise common sense when flying and do so safely. I regard myself as a professional and hold myself to a very high standard. I am a people person and can navigate my way through a myriad of social situations with ease, however there are times when people's behavior can throw you off. Mr. Portly is an example of hostility that did that was unneeded and was better diffused with the assistance of an authority figure. I will not name the location or the federal agency that Mr. Portly works for, but what I will say is this, do your job to the best of your abilities without reservations, exercising the right amount of caution, and treat people with respect, you will be rewarded for your honesty.
World Autism Day: Portraits of Autism
I have made a few posts in the last few years about my brother who has Autism. Today is World Autism day. April is Autism Awareness Month. Today I was visiting him like I do a few times a week. I wanted to make some portraits of him that show a bit more of who he is as a little person.
"My name is Johnny. I can not tell you that I have autism, as I can not define what autism is. I was born on December 1, 2000. I was premature, underweight, and almost died due to being so underweight. I was airlifted to Boston after being delivered via emergency c-section. After 47 days in the hospital I was allowed to go home. The first year of my life I developed fine. I was like any average child. Close to being a year old I started to have seizures and mild strokes. During those moments my family was unaware that I was changing. My brain had sustained damage during the first few months of life in side my mother. It was later discovered that I may have had a massive stroke while developing in my mothers womb. The next few years of my life were filled with tremendous set backs. I have been developmentally delayed. My family argued constantly about what to do, what we should do, what we shouldnt do, or how we should and do things. I have an amazing older brother whom I look up to. I have nick-named him Yellow Bee. He gives me high fives and that makes me happy. When I was younger, about 4-5 years old he stood me up and gave me a light push on my back. Those were my first independent steps. He encouraged me and believe in me that I could walk, when others did not. He saw in me a strength and wanted me to work for it. My mother has always been reluctant to let me take those steps. She is scared. Scared that I may fall and get hurt. Which came true two years ago while at school. I was left to walk in front of the class, by myself in a walker for those who can not hold their balance so well. The teacher was supposed to be next to me the entire time. She was behind the class. The wheel got stuck and I fell of the curb. I broke my wrist, as it was strapped into the device. My face hit the ground and I broke my nose. My family, my brother especially was so upset, mad, and very scared for me. He is always worrying about me. You can see that my nose has been broken due to how I hit the ground. It makes me sad. I like school, basketball, going for a ride in my brothers truck. I have a hard time eating food. I hear everything that is said to me. I try talking to people, but sometimes that just dont seem to understand what I am saying. I have a hard time getting words to form the way they do, the way they talk to me."
Taking care of someone with autism has challenges but it comes with an advantage. It give me a different perspective on the world. I constantly try to imagine the world through his eyes. My brother and I have an unspoke language. When we make eye contact at times, we understand each other. It is like a visual telepathic conversation that we engage in. When we make eye contact, it is like we are speaking, saying things to each other. It is hard to explain, but never-the-less, it is one way that we talk to each other. As a photographer, I am by nature an observer. I watch. I understand through watching. I understand by observing. I have been observing him for years, trying to discern what he is doing, why he is doing, what is life for him. The conclusion, due to the language barrier, the speech impairment, I may never know. The idea of not knowing is quite painful, as I want to ask him questions, such as, what are you thinking? why are you doing that? and receive an answer. Some questions can be answered by spending time with him, but honestly, it is hard. Understanding his words has taken years of development on both our parts. My mother can understand him much better than I can because she has such a fearless presence with raising him. My mother has devoted her life to raising him without conviction, doing her best to give him life, a place to live, and making sure he has what he needs and wants. Autism by some peoples standards might be a bullshit disorder, disease, label, but the truth is, autism is another characteristic that make my brother as different as the next person. Autism is, who my brother is and what he lives his life with. I am proud of my brother for being as much of a influence to me as I am to him. If you have someone in your life or know someone with autism, try and envision the world through their lives, you might be surprised what you learn.
