[caradoc]

Beautiful car! What price range do they go for these days? I have no idea…

They’re all over the place these days – but there’s a classic car dealer lot just around the corner from my house…

I have an outstanding offer from an old friend of mine – which leaves me a way to buy her back at a later date if circumstances change. If he decides not to buy, I’ll be exploring the market a bit.

[caradoc]

A friend of mine did his own shoot.

[caradoc]

It’s a 1955 Chevrolet 210, four-door sedan. 235 Straight Six, three-on-the-tree.

I have no place to keep her. I don’t drive her enough to make it worthwhile to maintain her. I’d like to see her go to someone who can take care of her the way she deserves.

[caradoc]

It’s not “baby blue.” It is “Antique Turquoise.”

😉

[caradoc]

What. The. Fark?

[caradoc]

I’ve been “dip tested” twice now. Once at ALB and once at IAD.

I’ve decided not to fly for the time being, but if circumstances force me to fly and I get some blue-shirted dimwit asking me if he can test the overpriced mud I just bought from some airside “coffee” shop, I’m planning on marching back to the vendor, bypassing the line, and demanding VERY loudly to know why the TSA thinks they served me liquid explosives.

Should be interesting, if nothing else.

[caradoc]

ATL and PHX have been the biggest offenders when it comes to messing with my gear.

[caradoc]

Well, I’m flying off to Britain tomorrow. I will have the pleasure of going through at least 3 security checks (Fukuoka, Tokyo, Amsterdam); I am sure I will come back with tales of airport joy, though to be honest, apart from the explosives swab mentioned above, I have never had an encounter to match all the TSA stories I hear from the States.

I envy you your ability to travel without interacting with the blue-shirted thugs of the TSA.

[caradoc]

Hell, why not swab everyone’s clothes, skin, bags, jewellery etc.?

Travelers have been reporting for several months now that TSA employees have been randomly demanding to swab people’s drinks inside the “secure area” at several airports.

Yes, the TSA is collectively stupid enough to believe that someone might actually be drinking liquid explosives provided in a cup from the Starbucks at the airport.

[caradoc]

The security guy took the camera and all my lenses out of the bag, and swabbed them to check for explosive residue. He said it might prove I had been photographing around arms dumps or something.

At ATL I saw a photographer being hassled for “residue” when he had been shooting a fireworks display the night before. This was when they were still using the “puffer” machines that have since been mothballed and warehoused because they weren’t making Chertoff any money.

[caradoc]

On a related note, suggestions for archiving digital work on the road? I don’t have a lappy but I will have access to a computer. I am pondering picking up a cheap external hard drive and loading it with the Canon EOS software to use for quick develop and storage.

You might look into one of the many devices on the market that have card slots and a hard drive. They simply copy the card onto the hard drive.

I would not then format the cards, though – I usually have somewhere between 32 and 98GB of SD cards with me when I’m traveling. This may be more than you have.

Having enough extra memory cards of whatever format you use to maintain the card as a primary and the backup device as a secondary would be a good plan.

Here are some of the devices I’m talking about:

http://www.adorama.com/ICDFP320.html?utm_term=Other&utm_medium=Shopping%20Site&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=gbase

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&sku=B31B192002

…et cetera. Places like Frys Electronics, Adorama, B&H Photo, and others will have reasonably wide selections of reasonably priced hardware to look at.

[caradoc]

It was actually you talking about the TSA in the Winter thread that made me think of this and worry about how I was going to transport my gear. I’ll be damned if some goon is going to be taking apart my gear in the airport.

If for some reason I was forced by circumstances to fly somewhere or take a train somewhere or otherwise deal with the TSA in any fashion, I would most likely insure my gear and ship it FedEx or UPS to my destination.

Especially after the news from Savannah, GA and the recent gropings of passengers getting off of the train.

(The TSA blog post has a few lies in it, too – Blogdad Bob says nobody getting off the train had to go into the station. People who were there report being told to go into the station to get their luggage – which was left outside, unsecured – and groped before being allowed to get their stuff.)

I’ll reiterate – anyone currently working for the TSA cannot be trusted. Period.

[caradoc]

Should anyone reading this actually BE a TSA agent, I’m not talking about you, but that guy you work with, you know, the one that really gets on your nerves. That guy. 🙂

One knuckle-dragging blue-shirted Zeppelin actually uncapped all of my lenses and poked grubby fingers at the element surfaces.

It took him a few minutes to realize that he needed to grip the OTHER ring to unscrew a circular polarizer.

If you’re employed by the TSA, one or more of the following conditions apply:

1) You’re stupid enough to believe that you’re doing something useful.
2) You enjoy viewing and/or touching other people’s bits.
3) You’re a thug who is “paying everyone back” for not allowing you to be a hall monitor in grade school.
4) You’re unqualified for any other line of “work.”

Seriously – if you’re a TSA employee, find another line of work that doesn’t have so much in common with being a guard at Treblinka or Dachau, “just following orders.” If that’s not possible, please at least TRY to remain focused on “safety and security,” and ignore the doobie you might find in someone’s pocket. And for Pete’s sake, stop groping the nine-year-olds.

[caradoc]

Argh.

That’s a heck of a drive for me… and I’m not about to drag my gear through the grubby fingers of the blue-shirted thugs at the airport again at any time in the foreseeable future.

[caradoc]

…you could stand to learn a few tricks. Not only from that lady from Zimbabwe , but this fine collection of Russian photographers as well.

Just for that, should we ever meet I shall buy you a beer.

And pour it over your head. I need to go bleach my eyes and brass-brush my frontal lobe now, thankyewsoverymuch.

[Author]

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