'The Battlefield of International Air Travel'

This ever so ligh and slightly sardonic photo shows one passenger's

(my) view of the rigors of International Air Travel (seen up close and

personal) one day recently. Your comments and ratings are invited

and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit

a helpful and constructive comment; please share your comments and

photographic knowledge. Thanks! Enjoy! John

It does convey the battlefield atmosphere, John. You look like the tough warrior too. Only thing missing is all the families with babies and old ladies I see strewn around the waiting areas. aloha and friendlier ( someday) skies to you and all of us.   Was this US or overseas terminal? gs

After the fall of civility of Great Brerrifienality, really good composition, tones and subjects, whereas anyone else taking photos those places could just get snapshots, I think, and some were composed 'on the fly'- no stopping to frame and taken at 15 mph.  [except tones in this one, of course)

I was at the height of my photographic powers for just 'wandering around a fixed and small area' that day, my bag in a wheelchair (I am one of the wounded too, though that hour a walking wounded, semi-walking at least).

This is becoming much more commonplace, with my CF chips now looking very very much like my former 'culls of the best' from several earlier downloads or even several months of shooting' from past times'. 

Hooray! 

I hoped that day would come and it is now!

Thanks Gerry.

Street's still my main love.

Who else sees a battlefield in a comfy air terminal lounge in of all places Toronto, where everybody is so civil (excuse me! excuse ME!  excuse me, . . . no excuse ME, I was the one who bumped into YOU!)

Now imagine those same people with their 'excuse me's' playing volleyball against each other and after each killer spike followed by a dig, launching into a chorus of 'excuse me's';~))))

Canada:  Last Bastion of Civility.

Why even the hamburger (a hamburger, yes,) sold to me by an Indian woman who surely was Hindu, was one of the best I had had in my life in an institutional setting.  (Hindus consider eating cow flesh sacrilege--an irony?)

One thing, in an air terminal quarantined like this, if you're not by a departing gate, your equipment is not so likely to disappear . . . . but if near a departing gate, then 'watch out'.  It can be in Moscow before you hit the ground in Buenos Aires, Sydney or Timbuktu.

Yes, Gerry, I am a combatant, though I wish a noncombatant.

And I am dependant on others to help me; others who sometimes resent it like hell and thus ineptly sometimes dump me from my wheelchair, leave me stranded in locked buses outside when it's super subfreezing, for up to an hour at at time, while they go inside to 'get a security door key' then forget about me, locked on a special transit bus, freezing in a light jacket when it's icicles on my nose, having a guy keep a whole jetliner hostage claiming he's got no 'lift to haul my wheelchair and me off a plane' when in fact it just costs him money . . . then lying to a pilot about that plus a flight crew, saying first (1) we have no lift and (2) there is no lift, and then (3) (when a lift finally does show up, giving the lie to the previous statements) asking for from me (and not getting) 120 Euros for allowing this passenger, wheelchair bound at the time) to deplane.

(and more than once by the same guy and his minions.)

I won't name here the airline, airport or man for the present.  Litigation awaits.

I start shaking at the known confrontation I expect when I get on a plane to that airport when it may not have a jetway for my plane when I take off for it when it is to land at his huge European terminal . . . . . as I have no ability to climb stairs and this 'individual' boss (choosing kind words) would have two 120 pound women carry me down icy stairs in near hurricane force winds, even though I weigh more than double their weight and they are sure to drop me (and my legs are coverered with nerve endings that cannot be touched without causing pain which means NO one can carry me at all.

How'd you like to be dropped by two women down a gangway in buffeting ice and snow, on icy stairs, when one mises a step (as you accurately predicted) because their cheap boss was too stingy to call in his 'lift machine' to remove a heavy wheelchair bound passenger from  a plane?  (you?)  (me?)  Handycapped or disabled people unilaterally strippped of their rights by one airline company flouting the law.

And what wouold you be thinking as it was you tumbling to break your crown, having known from the start it would happen?

That's my predicatment, each and every time on this onward route, and I was experiencing that dread as I took this photo.

That's me in the background after those two women drop me to the tarmac.  In an 'S' curve, dead or paralyzed.

From the airplane door, down a flight of icy, wind-buffeted steps in brass-monkey numbing cold.

;~))

Here's looking at you, Gerry there in sunny/rainy/windy TEMPERATE Honolulu.

This photo is heartfelt, you see.

john

 John (Crosley)

Thanks for the comment.

It's cool, too.

John

It was garbled in sending and now is blocked from anti-spam software from being fixed.

It will stand for now.

Sorry, but I write clearly, not gobblydygook, and if I make mistakes, I correct them, but if my mistakes or garbling is locked out, I am helpless.

john (feeling helpless and exposed.)

Very interesting photo. The grain works in giving it the gritty feel you were going for. I like it.

I processed it as an ordinary photo, bringing out the shadows, and it just looked so 'ordinary'.

I added some contrast and some grit (not grain but in pulling out shadows then darkening others, it brought 'character' to this heavily back lighted photo' which you call 'grain' but really is manipulated 'noise'.

Anyway, you are right, things that are unacceptable otherwise, seem to 'work' here.

Good choice, not in any textbook.

Seems to be my motto.

Gut instinct, knowing basics rather than any rigid rule.

Just 'is it working to say what I want to say?' rather than working with any Photoshop clue of the day or week.

That could be the motto of my life.

Thanks so much for helping make a point so well that might have been passed over.

john

John (Crosley)

I gather that Canada is still good airline terminaling. Good to remember. I am thinking of Vancouver one day soonish. Only a six to seven hour slog from here with one change in Seattle. Bummer that we don't have the yummy currency advantage but I dont mind that so much. I hate air travel. My wife despises air travel. So we mostly stay put in our older years. Luckily I did get around a lot back when, all over the Pacific and to Europe (navy days) when we were almost welcome.  Remembrance of Normandy and Marshall Plan..nowadays-,whoo- I got to check the State Dept advisories and even then who knows where one is welcome or comfy even.

I have been reading about the Dalmation Coast around 1940 by poetic travel auther and historian "Rebecca West" -check out her fat volume "Black Lamb and Gray Falcon"- who learned to love or at least admire the  Serbs and Croats back then even though they were a little 'whacky uber nationalistic and contrariran at times.... Dare I think of that place?, who knows, I am a seasoned traveler, but suffer terminal jet lag but have yen to shake loose this year....  I used to flake out on terminal floors no sweat. And once flew Air Force Space A, that my friend is a whole 'nothter experience to try at least once if one has time. One gets terminalitis disease and learns zen patience , but BUT makes some super- fun friends, who make real "human contact."   Which I still collect so to speak... Trench warfare contact among fellow troopers it is...  Aloha nui and nice talkin' to you again John Crosley.

Better get started on tha photo memoir, John, really, selfpublish same even with this Lulu outfit i read about...  gs

I often am in Ukraine (and Seattle and LA).   Perhaps our paths may cross.

Except for a sponsor, I would be seeking exhibition now, one is expected to hang one's own work, and I am a horrible photoshopper; I need a pro on staff at all times (but above work, like all shown on PN is mine).

I have other work in files for eventual printing -- soon I hope, as my life is devoted to it, (and shooting of course, as it's in my blood).

If you wish to come to Ukraine, I would leave no stone unturned to be able to see you; I am not a full-time resident but am in Ukraine quite frequently. 

Dead or alive, sometimes it seems (as in background woman)

Or just gimpy like foreground man, but I don't use crutches which throws airline people off.   If you use crutches then you are disabled -- no crutches then you are obviously 'well if you look well' even if about to die.

They are all amateur doctors ready to make medical diagnoses with all sorts of personal questions with askance personal looks.

Truth:  If I scramble on a tarmac towards loading stairs for bus I'm dead for walking for six weeks.  Period, or worse.

So, with no middle ground, I get a ride.

Nobody will carry bags unless they're in my lap in wheelchair most times, and huge terminals on bad days are my bane.

I am very experienced and now refuse to play the 'let's get on board and shove scramble'.

I preboard, stow bags and cameras, then wait the cattle.

Air Canada was quite OK, and also US Air last I flew them internationally (to Barcelona) surprised me. (Star Alliance mileage ticket, onward to Vienna but with a 23-hour change of plane stay, a little known secret).

I 'stay' (not stopover) in Vienna, this trip for about 22 hours toward Seattle then LA (or is it backwards?).

I have so much to write and publish I am stymied.

I need a guide -- someone knowledgeable.

Any suggestions.  Publishers eat it all with their outdated business model

I am thinking: 

Street photography text for nation's photo students in University.

I could write that in four weeks and get hold on market (illustrated)

Like writing an annuity, with periodic revisions.

I think no one could come close except a few 'name' photographers.

Any hints or suggestions?

E-mail is on bio page (put your name and PN in 'about' field to avoid being thrown away with ED ads that fill my in-box, please) or write me on PN but then you do not get copy.

john

(with much thanks)

John (Crosley)

I try to translate your comments using the computer translator. My English is very bad.
But I understand the problem, about which you write.

I know Ukrainians like to imagine they have a very hard life, and some, especially those far from major cities, do have very hard lives -- including teachers who are expected to live on starting salaries of $100 a month, I am told, and with an Administration that previously studied making 'selling grades (or marks) legal, a practice which goes on to this day quite commonly (ask any Ukrainian parent or student).

It of course undercuts the value of any Ukrainian diploma, for if someone can buy their way to a degree, what is the value of a diploma?

Students who don't buy their grades (marks) tell me so loudly . . . . to make sure they have my respect.

Same with parents of smarter kids who don't need 'help'from corrupt and bankrupt teachers.

I married a Russian woman less than half my age 10 years ago, and for her family 'meat was for holidays' -- it was potatoes every meal.  I remember hubub one morning when I first came to stay with her parents, her and her child, and it was a giant burlap bag of potatoes 100 kg (220 lbs.) being delivered to the front door to be placed on a semi-warmish balcony -- all their food for a winter.

That was it . . . plus some occasional eggs and onions for flavor and a mother who was a wonderful which she passed on plus some to her daughter/later my bride (who later for brain cancer ending our relationship).

And from talking with models, many Ukrainians eat only potatoes all meals in a day . . . and a doctor of mine says they are very nutritious - -with much protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc., a healthy food for a sole food source for many.

Hardship, of course, is relative.

Is it someone who has meat 'only on holidays'?

Or someone who has brain cancer after moving to America -- land of the world's most abundant and cheapest food?

Someone who has to eat kartoshka (kartofil -- barabola) (potatoes) 3 times a day, though Ukrainian potatoes can be delicious.

Or someone wheelchair bound who must travel 18-28 hours from Ukraine to America just to see his doctor for necessary medical treatment and medicines every month at huge expense and difficulty . . . . . because the Ukrainian government beliees in letting people suffer?

No real strong analgesics . . . . . .

Even for post-surgery, as my assistant's husband found out today.

Suffering is 'relative', just as Einstein found out about time and mass.

I suffer all day, every day, but when I take a great photo, my attention is so diverted my suffering lessons -- it's a great analgesic (pain diverter if not pain killer).

I hope we met soon, Svetlana, it's overdue and I have a short 'window of opportunity' this coming week.

My best to you.

john

John (Crosley)

That's my (fake) story.

I am more or less handicapped and I have been dumped out of wheelchairs pushed by little old people (I am large) or ghetto residents who scolded me for troubling them to make them 'work' for a living while they talked on their mobile phones.

I have had a certain airline refuse to use a lift to deboard from its tarmac-parked airliners when I couldn't negotiate steps and wouldn't be carried by lightweights (and have sores on my legs that prevent being handled anyway) saying to me they didn't have a wheelchair tarmac lift, then later saying 'it doesn't work' (even to the captain of the plane and crew members, not once but two separate times in a MAJOR worldwide airport), been told that two women less than my weight will carry me down outdoor steps in blowing snow and  wind in antarctic conditions, sure to drop me (and send me to bed for a lifetime), and then when the LIFT did arrive, tried to charge me 120 Euros to use it to disembark my tarmac-parked plane, and later, tried to get me arrested shortly before my connecting plane because I took photos in the terminal (and waited to try to cause the arrest until just before my next plane was to depart after a long delay, just to hinder me and upset me, in my opinion, for having revealed what was obvious to all as their 'lie' (also my and others' clear opinion).

Such things continue to this day, even when flying as disabled.

Or, maybe more so when flying as disabled.

You can't win for losing.

Yes, Liz, it is so.

This guy, however, has an injury which predates his getting on a plane that day, I am sure.

It's my little joke of a photo, caused by the juxtaposition and the background; who can pass up a good sardonic comment especially after experiencing what I've experienced (see above)?

Best to you, my wonderful critic, Liz.

john

John (Crosley)