Summer's Half Full
Actually, Summer's half over. But, optimistically still seems half under ... er ... half, well ... there's still half of it left. I haven't taken the time to blog lately which is not my intention. I just seem to be changing the focus of the blog from a technical discovery blog to more of a self indulgent exchange. I'm sure it will evolve into something else entirely as time marches.
I had a nice afternoon, yesterday. Went on my own photo-walk and ran across some interesting things I thought I'd share: an interesting guy with an interesting beard and hat, a model wearing a bridal gown, a young boy feeding the ducks, a nice lunch and some red shoes. All in a day's walk.
My first stop was at Parade Park where there was a festival celebrating bike-riding. I gathered that the main theme was dress up in costume, ride your bike over, listen to some live music, get drunk, eat some over-priced food and generally show-off. All to support bike-riding. I suppose versus other modes of transportation.
This guy was the first interesting character I encountered and I got a nice shot. Although my favorite shot was the red shoes. I couldn't image riding a bicycle with these shoes and I'm not sure how she might even walk to the event in them but, they offered a great photo op.
Parade Park is right next to the Sculpture Garden which was a-buzz with activity. Perhaps from the festival but, usually it is busy on a nice Saturday afternoon. There I saw this young boy feeding the ducks and a woman in a bridal gown.
This young boy was with his family who seemed to be taking a picnic break from the bike-riding festival. He was obviously dressed for the celebration and delightfully distracted from his surroundings by the wildlife.
As it turned out ... this bride met with a couple of photographers and a groom at the north arbor of the garden for a photo shoot. I happened to catch her on her way. She was intent on her mission, had the gown under control but struggled a little with her heals in the soft grass ... very focused.
The most interesting encounter occurred when I stopped in at a favorite restaurant (really more of a deli or bistro) and had lunch. I took some time making my choice at the counter, purchased my food and sat at a table next to the window ... I'm thinking, what beautiful light! I've got to get a picture of lunch. So, I snap a few shots (50mm f/1.4 set at f/4).
At this point I was approached by an employee, I can only assume she was the manager that day, who asked what I was taking pictures of. I thought I was pretty straight-forward with her explaining that I was taking a picture of my lunch. She asked, "Why?"
My response was that I'm an amateur photog that simply sees a nice image in front of them. To which she replied, "I'm not that gullible."
"I'm not that gullible." Now, what do you say to that!?!
The conversation ended with me offering to delete the images if she was uncomfortable but she said, "I want you to stay just stop taking pictures of our food." At this point it wasn't worth making any further issue but I had to think that the $20 I just paid for the food would rightfully make it mine and not theirs. I could have gotten it to go and photographed it to my delight without interruption anywhere else.
I can only imagine what she was really afraid of and I suppose she's in a position where she might feel the need to protect the proprietary rights of her employer however, I could be someone who was interested in promoting her business, too.
I could blog about D'Amico's restaurant in Golden Valley, tell my readers how wonderful the food is, that they should try to get there and experience the patio, drink free refills of the house wines and especially have one of the molasses cookies which are to die for!
But, I don't blog about restaurants. I'm an amateur photographer who photographs interesting things.
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16 comments:
great story...saw this on flickr and followed up to hear the story. wonderful reading.
It's hard to understand why businesses go to such extremes.
beautiful photos! the bride you captured is actually a colleague of mine-- i recognized her right away.
I know the bride too :) Great picture of her!
I cannot think of a single possible reason that she would have had an issue with anybody photographing the food. Huh?
Thanks for all the comments ... I'm not sure what D'Amico's girl was thinking. Maybe I was gonna steal a recipe or something as if none of us have ever had chicken, apples and mayonnaise mixed together!
I would not have expected someone in a restaurant to object to a photo either. When I was in New York/Montreal/Quebec City etc. recently, I took a bunch of pix of food and put two of them in a newspaper article and some others on Facebook, and thought nothing of it. Based on the "gullible" comment, I'm curious if she thought you were trying to copy their presentation or something, but that could be done by memory. At first I got the idea she figured you were a blogger or critic and didn't want anything said about the restaurant, which seems a bit odd. But if I were you, I probably would have said you had a photography blog.
Not the least surprised to find that it was D'Amico establishment. They've been suburbanizing Minneapolis palettes, and levelling authentic expression (i.e. the Loring's demise) for over a decade.
I always have this feeling that when someone questions why I'm photographing something that they are a part of, that there is some dark sinister secret that they are scared might become public knowledge.
Example: once while shooting some footage for a course in college, the foreman of a nearby construction project came to question us. His final words "Oh, just making sure you weren't trying to expose me since I'm not using OSHA certified workers." o_0
Maybe the green stuff is really people.
You should have looked frightened and said, "Why, what's wrong with it?"
love to know what she was not that gullible about. what did she think you were up to??? you must have asked here didn't you?
just wow. Were you going to go home and recreate it? You can't even copyright recipes, let alone the food they create!!!
Also, I love the tattoo on the red-shoes-wearer: I/O, 01, or whatever you want to call it, it's a beautiful symbol that has a lot of meaning to me. Perhaps I just found another tattoo I require…
If the business is privately owned, they have every right to ask you not to shoot in their establishment and frankly, they do not need to provide a reason.
Potential reasons, however, could include rival establishments causing them trouble, people wanting to report on "problems" (I have worked with animals in the past, and it is easy to take things out of context and make them look bad), concerns that you are selling pictures of their food as stock photography. Those are just things that come immediately to mind. The worker's comments tell me they have had problems before and the right thing to do would not have been to hassle the workers.
Disrespecting a business' right to NOT allow photography in their establishment simply makes things tougher for other photographers by giving a selfish, negative image.
@Sean - well put! Here's a comment that I posted in another forum fielding the same issue.
"After reading through your comments I have come to the following conclusion which I'd like to share ... I was in a private business and whether I take photographs or not the issue remains I have to respect the privacy and policy of the business owner and their charged minions. The fact that the manager did not handle the situation particularly well is moot. At some point in our conversation she said, "... stop taking pictures ..." It is none of my business why.
Luckily, I complied without escalating the situation. Just because I own a camera doesn't mean I have an "omnipresent" license to use it. Even if there is example after example of people demonstrating that behavior (ie. what I would classify as intrusive tourists foreign or domestic) it's not right and only a true exchange of respect will keep doors open for photographers to ask permission and receive it."
I have to wonder why a private eatery would be so concerned about you taking pictures of a meal you just purchased. Where there any signs posted no cameras or photography? I carry my camera every where and private business or not you have rights as a photographer.
I would ask the manager if you ever go back as to why you were told not to take a picture of your food. The light was right, the food looked good, what can be the reason? Even if you used it for stock photography how would anyone know it was their food?
I would spend my $20.00 else where next time. I take pictures at Applebees all the time.
While they were within their rights to ask you not to take pictures the way it was handled by the young "manager" makes me think she needs some public relations lessons. They can ask you to stop, even leave, but they cannot ask you to delete the images.
This kind of anti-photography stance is counter-productive. When I face this kind of thing I politely mention that the photo could lead to good publicity for the establishment if posted on a blog or website. If forced, I might also mention that a bad comment on the same forums could lead to reduced business. It is their choice.
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