Spotting And My Thoughts

As per my recent post on Instagram about rude spotters who ruined the spotting experiences of others, after some thoughts, I realised that maybe I should elaborate further on my thoughts and perhaps share some of my experiences with these people. Sorry if I have used some swear words in the post though.

A little introduction... 

I started planes spotting back then when I was in Polytechnic, somewhere in 2010 or 2011. The days as a rookie are GENERALLY quite peaceful as there aren't really much teen spotters around (at least to what I saw and noticed). No issues in general, but there are few notorious ones mentioned in forums that I only get to know about them when my spotting partner shared the posts with me.

The hobby start to grow as I learn more about planes and reigniting the very old sparks with aviation that I had when I was a kid. Life was simple back then as a rookie spotter when time is not really a luxury as I have some day-offs from classes from projects and study week for upcoming exams. (Which I don't really need an entire week to study as I am somehow prepared long ago)

As the years goes by... 
Due to work commitments and stuffs after graduating from Poly, I start to get less active from random spotting and will most likely to appear only during special flights or when I have the time to drop by. The hard work did pay out well; allowing me to upgrade my little compact camera to a proper DSLR and telephoto zoom lens. This is also when I start to heard more about the bad guys in the spotting scene which all of them are teens. (I am no longer one though, I am more of a youth now.)

Initially, I thought these complains are just boys' quarrels and stuffs, read them, get to know better of what is going on and just laughed off like an old lady. This stops when one day, I decided to show up at the Changi Airport Terminal 1 Viewing Mall (where the alleged incidents took place for most of the time) to sort of have a reminiscence on the good old days as a rookie spotter and my short-lived teen life. Saw some guys seem to have some quarrel or sort of thing, of course I decided to ignore and do my own things since I do not know them nor know what is going on and neither do I want to ask for unnecessary trouble.

These guys have been lurking around at the Viewing Mall for almost every time when I visited during my free times. So far so good, I don't really give a damned since I do not know them. Till one day, one random rare sight appeared which I wasn't really aware of since I only dropped by randomly to just stand at a spot and looked around. Those horrible guys started coming over to the good spot (where I was standing for quite sometime) and just pushed me away! Goodness for crying out loud! If you guys need some space to shoot, I will gladly stepped away, you don't have to squeezed your way and knocked into my lens etc. So fucking rude! Where are their manners?!

I was of course, really pissed off and just walked away. The good stuffs were usually snapped by my partner. My partner did witnessed some of these pushing and squeezing incidents happened to me and asked me if I was pushed or whether am I ok, etc. Of course I stopped my over-protective partner from confronting them as I am not really the kind that will pick a fight over petty things like this even though I did cursed and swear loudly for their rudeness and because I couldn't get a proper view of the plane.

That was just years ago when I wasn't really that mature, funny as it seems when I think back. But this is not the end, after getting to know more local spotters through social network, etc. And that's how I got to know better on the spotting scenes now, and updated myself with the spotting scene. Those guys that I have seen quarreling or having some sort of stare-downs etc, they are not a bunch of childish kids who fought over small matters, it's about rude spotters (what I always code named them as 'Those guys' since I do not know them) VS normal spotters.

Sigh... I may be inactive from spotting, but it saddens me to see such stupid conflicts just because one group being a prick. Why do you guys have to do that? Causing unnecessary troubles for the rest of the spotters? Just because you guys have good equipment? Eh, come on lah, being rich with equipment doesn't give you the right to bully others who are in smaller groups and does not mean that you can put your manners at home.

You guys don't feel ashamed of yourselves, I feel ashamed for you, bunch of soon-to-be grown ups behaving like some egoistic boys just because you want to monopolise the spotting scene over good equipments and group of big bullies? It's not like the Viewing Mall is solely owned by you guys, please show some basic respect to other lone spotters because we lone spotters are not losers like you who only go around in packs.

If this goes on, it's just the matter of time when someone will get hurt in the process or even have to get the security personnel to stop your nonsense. I wouldn't want to come to one point when we spotters are barred from the Viewing Mall because of your idiocy. Please spot with class and put those rivalry and egoism aside. We are around to learn, make new friends and share our passion with the world.

As I was about close this post, I got reminded of something nice. That was during the Angry Birds X Finnair event happening at the Viewing Mall. One of the representatives of Rovio approached some of us, praised our enthusiasm with plane spotting, and even gave us some of the food served in the buffet.

Hope to see less of these lame antics and everyone to get along or get out of each others' way if you disliked him or her for whatever reasons.