Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I went for a stroll along Queen St. West during my lunch hour today. I saw some mannequins in a window along with an interesting reflection, so I decided to take a photo of it. Moments later a woman from the store came out to the street and told me to delete the photo. Luckily I was using a film camera, so I couldn't delete it!!!

I don't think I did anything inappropriate. What do others think?

Its public, she doesn't have any right to tell you to delete it

You did nothing wrong. She should go fly a kite.

What was the store so a bunch of us can drop by?

If we're heckled, we can educate.

yeah we should hold an informal adhoc meetup, and do this:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/3051457203/" title="Shop display at the Hudson's Bay Co. by mike.tan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/3051457203_757407a908.jpg" width="500" height="305" alt="Shop display at the Hudson's Bay Co."></a>

ya, PM me the store and I'll do the same to see if I get the same reaction...

You have the right to take photo's.
How you use them may be a different story.
Taking a photo does not infringe on copyright.
Using them might.

http://ambientlight.ca/laws.php

Tim

The store was Club Monaco between Peter and Spadina on Queen Street West.

I am glad I had a film camera on me! Ha, ha bitch! Can't delete!

hah ah

make an ad-hoc meeting

just kidding

yes, of course you can take such photos....

Family member is a window dresser, in store displays, etc.

Frequently she has had to deal with perverts and unusual behaviour regarding the mannequins. As with many situations, once, twice, it's no biggie. Several times per week, every week, for years, becomes major annoyance.

Also, this issue of photos in / of retail environments frequently comes up. From the retailers perspective, there are intellectual property issues they consider. There are many stories of competition's odd tactics to gain inside information. You never know what the story is with, in this case, the individual who responded negatively. Perhaps they recently had incident somewhere in their retail empire and she received "sternly worded" memo.

you have the right to take the photo, she has the right to request that you not do so...

Inside their store it's their property. Outside she's just SOL. There's really nothing she can do beyond trying to persuade you.

stone her, crucify her!!!

I should go today with my TLR during lunch and see if they say stop me.

I thought this was legal as well. It may not be comfortable, but i guess you can go the Michael jackson route and cover your baby's head with a scarf. As to a store window, it's for DISPLAY to the public. They cant hassle everyone who happens to catch the store window in a picture.

The store was not busy when I was outside. She was near the front and I could see her in the corner of my eye. There is no way she should expect she was in the frame as my subjects were off to a side of the window.

Maybe she thought you were casing the place?

I could not have been casing the place as I was using a toy camera, a Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim!

The law uses the term " a reasonable expectation of privacy" to determine if one can be captured on film or video. In public no one has any expectation of privacy. As someone mentioned before, profiting from any pictures without a model release would be a different story. As for the pervert thing, if you truly believed is wasn't innocent, I could see the police being called and they might do a background check or maybe request the pictures be deleted. But in the end we live a free country.

My point in posting this thread was to gauge what others thought of my situation. I thought I did no wrong. (Some well know photographers like Lee Friedlander often shot objects in windows from the street.) I also wanted to convey that I don't appreciate people asking me to delete photos; I find that offensive.

im in for the ad-hoc shoot out there!

count me in

Check this little one

then what if you take it from the other side...

If you live in tight condo spaces, and you are close to another building... you see a woman changing near the window and you start taking pictures of that.

YOu've technically done no wrong because you're on your property looking through your window? or what if they are at the public pools and you take pictures?

People have the right to say no pictures as we have the right to privacy... once you're a celebrity, it seems that goes to a different scale.

In my opinion, you both did no wrong. It was probably the magnitude of the reaction that set it all off.

Sorry, shooting into a store front window and shooting into someone's condo are entirely different, both morally and in the eyes of the law.

and someone changing in a condo window is not for public display such as a storefront window designed not only to be on constant display to the public, but actually designed to grab attention!

yes, which I mentioned at a public pool as well

Wanted to show the contrast between both cases... in the eyes of the law, there is interpretation of what is in the best spirit of the original meaning of the law. In this case, I'll speculate its has to do privacy law for the person.

Actually that quite clearly violates the 'reasonable expectation of privacy' by shooting her inside her own condo.



If you're out in public, you do have the right to request that your picture not be taken. You do not have the right to force the photographer to not take and/or delete the image.

Generally I try and respect people's feelings. The one case where I'll ignore it is if they are not a significant part of the shot, especially if they aren't even recognizable. If I'm shooting a wide-angle landscape and someone objects I'm not likely to pay them much mind unless it is potentially infringing on a reasonable expectation of privacy, like say shooting their backyard.

However it is entirely legal to be uncooperative.

Absolutely agreed

Personally, I think about how I'd feel if I was this person, and usually gauge from there

If I feel uncomfortable with it, I won't take the picture.

Taking pictures of strangers is tough, and I generally don't do it

It's a free country: anyone can say anything, anyone one can can do anything (legal).

She was in her right to tell you to delete the image, you were in your right to ignore her.