Airport Test

Ryan Farnes

Ryan Farnes

Well-known member
Shooting down the length of Washington National's runway with 100-400mm lens with teleconverter. Slow, long, developing shots set to epic music. Just a test.

 
Just at the tip of this arrow, directly lined up with the runway.

Tons of people go to watch airplanes, and plenty of "plane spotters" with cameras and binoculars frequent the park. I'm unaware of any limitations on photographing or filming from the park. Perhaps something exists, but if so, perhaps only on the books of some PR official in an office inside the airport. :happy:

But I wasn't hassled at all, no. It was a quiet Saturaday morning, broken only by the steady stream of joggers and bikers on that path there.
 

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DDirector said:
I think the beach near St. Maarten airport is a bit more odd than that.
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Indeed.

Airport_SXM.jpg
 
Did you use a heavy, rock solid tripod? I imagine just touching the camera would cause image shake.

chris
 
awesome bro, next time I need a shot like that in a film I'm hiring you
and you can send the the media, IS or VC would work well on a sticks in a situation like that
 
Man not sure how you did it, but my neck of the woods this is not allowed at all. My friend was almost a mile away from the runway, was approached like the CIA by three blacked out SUVs and five guys jumped out in black suits , they were told that if they ever come back without a proper release form that they would take his camera and would need to take it up with police to get it back. Possible that they might take him to jail.


Nice footage
 
monkeyking said:
Did you use a heavy, rock solid tripod? I imagine just touching the camera would cause image shake.

chris
Click to expand...

I'm using a somewhat heavy Manfrotto 503HDV head on with 351MVB2K legs. Not really heavy, but it does weigh around 14 pounds altogether. I basically just didn't touch the tripod but the slight wind was still enough to affect it. My lens setup is a big of a sail with wind I'm afraid. I should have done some tests with the image stabilization just to see if it helped. I did turn it on but it didn't seem to have a big effect.

twocik23 said:
Man not sure how you did it, but my neck of the woods this is not allowed at all. My friend was almost a mile away from the runway, was approached like the CIA by three blacked out SUVs and five guys jumped out in black suits , they were told that if they ever come back without a proper release form that they would take his camera and would need to take it up with police to get it back. Possible that they might take him to jail.


Nice footage
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Wow, black SUVs guard airports in Florida? Interesting. Hehe.

Yeah, apparently this area is pretty unrestricted, of all places, in Washington DC. I suppose that I could really dig into it and contact the Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority and ask. But wow, if an airport is placing the burden on photographers and stuff to find out their rules, my feeling is that they're not too concerned about it. Given that this was a test, I have no regrets. Were I filming for a more official project, yes, then I would probably look into permissions and what not.
 
Cranky said:
Nice.

2:32 -- continuity issue. A 737 taking off, an MD80 in the air.
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Oh, I know, I know. Every cut goes to a completely different airplane. I really just did this as a test and then decided to cut a short piece together. :cheesy:
 
So, everyone peaked my interest in looking into this. The Airport Authority responsible for the airports here in Washington DC/Baltimore Office of Communications got back to me.

"The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has no objection to
photography and video of DCA from Gravelly Point."

Office of Communications
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
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The message does include that the park is actually NPS so she forwarded my question about filming into the airport to an NPS person. We'll see if what happens now!
 
And of course, no reply from NPS.

Once anything goes to the federal government, it never comes back. Beware.
 
There's a lot of misinformation about shooting in public in general, not only by the public but the officials too.

Your tax dollars built most airports and roads in the US so those are public domain. I do a lot with cars and airplanes and have been approached by police and security at airports and on the road, unless it is otherwise posted and your not breaking any traffic laws or trespassing you can take all the pictures and video of airports you want as long as your doing it for yourself as a private citizen.

I have put this to the test many times, the one time airport security threatened to confiscate my equipment I insisted that they arrest me, they called it in and the response was that as long as I was not breaking any laws, in this case I was authorized to be in the area I was shooting in and I was doing it for personal use I was free to video/take pictures all I wanted to.

Don't let paranoia take away your civil rights. Obviously a little common sense goes a long way but if your not endangering anyone or breaking any laws to get your footage, then shoot it. If your shooting at a larger airport be prepared to get questioned about what your doing and be polite when being questioned, but you don't need to be intimidated. It's been my experience that once you explain what your doing most of the authorities have been quite supportive.

Ryan your footage looks great. Have you shot the same thing at night?

Sorry for whoring myself out but here's a now older video I shot at the airport:

 
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