This is interesting re: spotting

I visited a hobby shop to get some paints for my Shuttle/747 model and met a railroad/bus enthusiast. We exchanged stories about how he is also hassled by authorities. He is obsessed with paint schemes of old railroad cars, such as the California Zephyr. He also gets harrassed by taking photos of old buses and railroad cars. Sound familiar? He also photographs aircraft. He remembers both the PanAm roof at JFK and the rocking chairs at CTB at LGA. We reminisced about how times have changed. He has published books about railroad car schemes as well. He is trying to get a model of the SouthWest Texas aircraft; he is obsessed with that livery. Also, on last weeks' evening news, they had a feature on Whale Watchers. They travel all over the world just to see a certain white whale for a few seconds; they are obsessed and cost is no object!

There are many people that are "cross addicted" to planes and 'railfanning', and other forms of transport. I had the privelege of meeting Don Linn down here in PA, who has a huge collection of plane and train photography. Paul K is also an avid spotter of trains and municipal transport such as buses(I didn't think that the single track that runs parallel to Hog Island Rd at PHL was in use until he posted photos of trains on it). It had also occurred to me that before the days of cameras, people were probably going down to ports to sketch the ships they saw.

When I first moved to NYC over 10 years ago I was a railfan. Although I wasn't into the photography side back then, I knew many who were. Some of the abuse that they got back then from the uninformed police as downright harsh. Often times the cops would tell them that they should find another hobby, and I remember one incident where the cop actually told a railfan that they should go to the park and take pictures of squirrels. Many of the photographers would print out and carry with them the page from the NYCT code of conduct that clearly stated the rules, which were that photography was permitted with no flashes or auxilliary equipment (ie tripods) allowed. In those first few years after 9/11, it seems like any sort of photography of infrastructure was frowned upon.

To be honest I was always a maritime spotting fan since I grew up on the west side near the river. There is an amazing variety of harbor traffic that makes for interesting viewing. You can walk around the piers and take all the up close pictures you want without anyone hassling you. (With the obvious exception of the cruise ship terminal)
There are even sites dedicated to the harbor like this one :
http://www.worldshipny.com/

BTW if you are curious about the history of the old ny waterfront you have to check out this guys flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavz13/...detail/?page=2

So this is essentially the last spotting activity left that will draw no attention from the police
http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-ge...-in-harbor.jpg

I'm not quite a train fan, however I do share the ship spotting obsession. Leave it to me to find 2 photography hobbies that require such different lenses (my bank account hates me enough for the plane rentals as is).