Glenn Campbell established the etiquette of behavior around Groom Lake, (place and personnel) , and of course violated it completely. If you publish a photo of a dude or a person on a Janet, they could lose their job. At the very least, it will lead to an investigation. Since these are just working schmucks, albeit with a cool top secret job, there is no use in causing them grief. I disguise the license plates of cars around the facilities if they are private, hide their faces if photographed, etc. The dudes don't bother to hide their faces around me since they know I don't publish their photos.

Given the new construction around the Janet terminal, it is a lot harder to get a clear view of the facility. I didn't bother renting a room in the Tropicana to shoot the fleet. I think the place is not as likely to be torn down given the real estate crash. You probably can't see into the waiting room any more. I assume you can see the passengers on the aircraft stairs.

That documentary where the PI followed the worker was a low point in Area 51 documentaries, which of course isn't saying much since their never has been a decent documentary. Remember, they write the script before heading out to shoot the area. That was the same documentary where the PI and Bob Grove were at the back gate and stayed behind some pole that they thought was the border. You can go right up to the back gate. People even stick stuff on the gate arms, though I think that is questionable, or at least tacky since you are defacing government property. Which reminds me, some jerk shot an arrow through the tail fin of the missile "gate guard" for the TTR. Yeah, I have a photo, though I don't know if I will bother to upload it since that just encourages more of this nonsense. A bit two faced of me since I did publish the defaced "open range" signs with the UFO and beams stenciled on them, but at least that was entertaining defacement.

It may be that protecting the identity of Groom workers is the wrong thing to do. This has been discussed periodically. If you start to expose the names of employees, the place becomes less secret, perhaps encouraging the government to loosen up a bit. I still favor protecting individuals, but exposing whatever else I can do to encourage the base to drop the secrecy.

Back to the Tropicana, I met an UK visitor at the Speedway photographing Nellis aircraft. His reservation was for a room in the Island tower facting the airport, and the hotel just screwed him. Since they deduct the first days stay from your credit card, he got a room at Hooters. I can tell you that the best view from Hooters is that of the Hooter girls, not the Janet terminal. Due to the construction, I think a better bet would be to park in long term parking at McCarran, though you never see the passengers from that location.