So, every once and a while we come across some resistance to the digital photography phenomenon. So what if we like to take pictures of our coffee? Well, Will Pate discovered that McDonalds did care when he took a picture of the new McCafe. I have received the same resistance from Prado. I have pictures waiting to go live but have yet to get “permission.” Granted, I could go ahead and post them. No problem. But I want to build relationships with small cafes. Now, in Will’s case, I would have done exactly what he has done. More power to him. We have a right to share photos and experiences.

A young man burst out from behind the counter and started accosing me. He got way too close to me and was very aggressive - I thought he was going to steal the camera right out of my hand. He said “You don’t have permission to photograph here. You have to delete the pictures”. I said “No I don’t, but I’m happy to leave though” He repeated that I “had to delete the photos”, so I said “No thanks, I’m just going to leave - see you” and he followed me right to the edge of the parking lot while reporting my movements in his headset. My reaction to him was because of his attitude, when someone gets in your face the natural reaction for those of us without gelly spines is to say “You can’t force me to do anything”.

I kept the pictures, but not knowing what to do I asked the folks in the Flickr Central group (the main discussion area for Flickr users) what were my photography rights in Canada. They helped me find some Supreme Court of Canada material that would have backed up my claim to being able to express myself creatively free of intimidation, but that it conflicted with McDonald’s right to tell me I couldn’t take pictures on their property.

Oh, and go look at the picture on Will’s site or on Flickr.