VettasM – Professional Photographer, Vlogger, Drone Operator » VettasM - Professional Photographer, Vlogger, Drone Operator

Behind almost being arrested at Perth Airport

If you were unaware I have gone full steam ahead on YouTube and vlogging (dont forget to subscribe to my channel :)), dont know what that is? ok ill make video on it and a little post about it and why over the next few weeks, if you are a subscriber then thank you

You may have followed my journey through Western Australia a few months ago, I have finally caught up and posted my final vlog from the trip, the trip to the airport, at the airport and flying home, there was one big problem however, I thought I would go in to a little more detail about what happened at the QANTAS Business Class lounge.

Watch the vlog below so you can get a bit of context.

So you have the basics right? Let me now break it down.

Over thelast 6 months I have watched, rewatched, spoken to and taken in so much information about improving my storytelling for my vlogs, one of the key components to a good storyline is quick, sharp, clips of a journey, they are whats known as montages (i hope thats right ahah), so one of the montages for this vlog was the trip in to the airport, in to the lounge, doing some work in the lounge then getting on the flight, that was cut short when I entered the Qantas Business Class Lounge.

As I approached the lounge glass doors I began recording, in my head I wanted the shot of the doors opening then a quick zoom to the Qantas logo (here is what it looks like in a photo -CLICK-), pretty cool yeah, so as I move through the glass doors and focus on the logo I say a quick “Hello ladies how are you today” to the staff behind the desks then I pull my camera down and stop recording, thats it, nothing more, no camera shoved in anyones face, camera is down and recording is done, however one of the staff behind the counter began questioning what I was doing, she asked what I was filming, why I was filming, I had no permission to film, its private property I cannot film, I began to tell her what i do, why i recorded, and where it would go, she said that they had sensitive ‘assets’ on their staff passes (her name and title?) and that I needed to delete the footage, to which I replied um well no , I asked her to look at it and see it was not what they thought to which she said if you do not we will have to contact the Manager, I simply said no problem and went about finding a seat and enjoying a beer.

As I unpacked and sat down a staff member approached, I noticed he was the ‘On Duty manager’ his name was Henry, straight away I thought he was here to have a word, but he didn’t, he offered me a beer and gave me a run down of the new facilities, which btw are fantastic, by far the best business class domestic lounge in Australia, I began drinking my beer when I noticed two Federal Police coming my way, I knew exactly what was going to happen, they kindly asked if I could bring my camera and come to one of the meeting rooms, essentially escorted through the lounge in plain site of everybody, they sat me down and asked me a few questions, they told me the ladies at the front desk felt intimidated by my filming and wanted the footage destroyed, the officer began to explain if I didn’t I would be detained and possibly arrested, thinking back, I dont recall him even saying for what exactly, anyway, I was asked to show the younger of the officers the footage and show them that I removed it, as he watched it I could see he really didn’t know why this was made in to an issue, i asked for their opinions but they refused to give it, they needed to act on the complaint and they did, I will say, the Federal Police were only doing their job, they acted extremely professional and not once did they make me feel intimidated, however could you not say dragging me through a business lounge in front of other patrons then throwing the ‘we can arrest you’ line is intimidating? you tell me.

Done, deleted all gone, i was now angry at what happened, not so much about the footage but the way it was handled, calling the federal police to assist in something so trivial? sorry but I feel like they wasted my time, wasted the officers time and created a situation that could have been dealt with by simply having a chat and looking at the footage.

Fifteen minutes later Henry approached me, asked if everything was ok, i simply said no not at all, I travel alot, have recorded video in so many airports, many lounges and this was a first, actually it wasnt, in Dubai last year the lounge staff simply asked me not to film because of religious reasons, they didnt ask me to delete the footage, just handled politely, back to Henry, when I explained to him what I did, what happened (seems he wasnt even told) he did not see the problem, and even apologised for it, a few minutes later he spoke to me and said he had just watched one of my Iceland videos, go figure.

So the take away from all this, I don’t know really, I wont stop doing what im doing, I wont try and hide it, perhaps next time I will walk in, explain to the staff that I would like to film the entry and wont film them, it certainly left a sour taste in my mouth, not so much towards Qantas, but the two ladies and how they handled it.

I rambled a little but now all the information is here for anyone to read, and maybe as a warning to anyone else.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed the vlog go hit the ‘like’ button and subscribe to my channel.

MV