Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past.
Oh man! Traveling was, well, not so fun. I used to be on the plane almost every week. One time before 9/11, I was in Mexico coming back to New York. I had purchased a gallon of tequila from a local farmer. The security at the airport in Mexico asked me what I was doing with a gallon of liquid. I said it was tequila. They all laughed and said, "OK, drink some." So I proceeded to take a large, fiery gulp. They then said, "Drink some more." They laughed and I took another gulp. They laughed some more and said, "Why don't you take another drink?" I did it. They laughed again and let me through.
Another reason why I say it was a nightmare is because I shot film and they had to inspect each roll. No, they didn't pull apart each roll, but they had to swipe it for explosives. I pulled up a chair and it usually took about two hours to swipe each roll. I had usually around 1500 rolls from a shoot. It was not fun, but they kept us safe so I didn't mind.
One other time I was up against a flight attendant who really had a grudge against photographers. She wouldn't let me on with my camera bag. So I said, "All right. How about if I wear my camera? Is that all right?" she said, "Yeah." So I pulled out all five cameras, put all my lenses on them. I looked like a Japanese tourist. It was probably not very safe, but I checked my empty camera bag to go below. I had a very uncomfortable plane ride home.
I'll leave it at that for now. I did get to see some amazing things. Although, the plane just turned into a, well, bus ride. Not so glamorous, like it used to be. Talk to you next week. Here's my link about the present. Love, B. Nice