Bosque Del Apache
NWR in November
Since losing my wife Elaine to breast cancer in November 1994, I
have visited this wondrous place every year right
around Thanksgiving. If any of you will be at Bosque this year
on Thanksgiving Day, please join me for a Thanksgiving buffet at
the historic Val Verde Steak house in Socorro at noon. The cost
is between $15 and $20 per person. For the past few years,
between 20 and 30 photographers have joined me for a great
time.
Here is some
vitally important information from friend, Bulletin subscriber,
and multi-IPT participant Bob Lichtman:
Artie, in
today's Wall Street Journal, they state that if you send a
package by US Mail, there is a chance that it will be X-rayed.
New
FAA regulations require any packages shipped by commercial
passenger airline has to be X-rayed. The Post Office has reduced
the amount they are shipping via passenger planes from 40% to
10%, but that 10% may be X-rayed.
The article goes on to say the Post Office is not happy with the
situation, but has no control over it other than to not use
passenger airlines for shipping. The Postal Service has reduced
the amount they are shipping by passenger plane, but this also
means that mail service will be slower.
Anyway, the point is that the WSJ is confirming what you have
been told and what you have been hearing - if you ship via the
post office, it may be X-rayed.
Thanks Bob. While many folks have been
writing and stating that they have experienced no problems with
mailing film, I for one, am not willing to take the risk. I
will put up the extra few bucks and use Fed-X.
Do understand that if you choose
to mail either unexposed or undeveloped film, that there is a
chance that it could be ruined by X-rays.
Hand-checking Film
Many folks have written asking if
traveling photographers are still permitted to demand that their
carried-on film be hand-checked. My understanding at present is
that the regulations that state that we are entitled to have
carried-on film hand checked are still in place, but that such
requests are simply being denied at various airports. If you
want to push the issue, you might ask to speak to a supervisor,
but in today's climate, I would imagine that most would forego
that option. Do note that 100 and 200 ISO film could be passed
through security X-ray machines many times without being damaged
at all.
Equipment Insurance and Shipped Lenses
After reading Bulletin 58, many have
written asking if I took out additional insurance (through the
shipper) for lenses and other photographic items that I have
either mailed or Fed-Xed. I had always assumed that the items
would be covered by my equipment insurance policy. I have my
equipment insurance through Rand Insurance. The program is
sponsored by NANPA. The folks from Rand informed me that the
covered items are protected at all times around the world. They
went on to say that if say, the Post Office lost an $8,600 lens,
that Chubb, the actual insurer, would pay the claim and then go
after the shipper. It is mandatory, of course, for each
photographer to contact his or her own insurance company.
If anyone would like the latest
information on the NANPA/Rand equipment insurance policies,
please e-mail us for details and I shall forward Jerry Bowman's
recent e-mail advising on how to save some money by beating the
upcoming rate increase. You do need to be a NANPA member to be
eligible for coverage.
