Hello everyone Having recently acquired a digital camera, I sometimes bring it around the city (Montreal, QC, Canada), to the weekend's tam-tam sessions, to chase images, scenes, attitudes. Though I enjoy very much the act of photographing these scenes, I feel there is something wrong about taking pictures of humans while they don't know about it. (I have taken a lot of pictures of my girlfriend, of my sister-in-law, and this is ok since they know). Am I wright, am I wrong about that "issue"? I must say that I don't intend to publish those images, but they are taken for my personal enjoyment. Your thoughts about that kindly appreciated. PH

I think the point here is the issue of the invasion of privacy and yes it is a honest question. If you peep into the window of someone's house, you are invading privacy but once a person steps outside of their "private" domain, they enter into the "public" domain and should expect that are being observed by someone. Even then, it is a matter of social civility to not "stare", "point at", or otherwise make people uncomfortable with your attentions, even when they are in a public place. So, you really have to use your better judgment and remember the golden rule, would you like it if they had a camera pointed at you? There is some good discussion on this topic a few posts back. SMILE = click

knowing the people at Tam Tams, I doubt many would notice you taking photographs, and with the attitudes of the people there, most probably wouldn't care either. If you can smoke a j in front of a cop with no worries, a camera ain't gonna seem too big of a deal. I say if you're uncomfortable doing it, don't do it. No need to force yourself. Still, you could prolly get some good shots every sunday at Mon Royal... hey, aren't ya glad they didn't try to move the Tams to another location? They were pondering that before this season... dumb idea. bonne chance mon ami!

At least the NEW Canadian seems to be nice :-D Can we trade the old one in or summik? sigh does he have any re-sale value????? (",)

To doca: Most of the time, when I'm in public, I wouldn't care about a camera pointed at me and shots taken of me. But it's just me. I would care more about "how do I look, is my hair right, is it good enough ?" than about the invasion of my privacy per se. I've got nothing to hide, hence I'm not scared to be captured on a picture (other than for my "amour-propre", wich is not much). It's getting clear to me that there is nothing wrong here, though I feel I must not abuse taking pictures in touchy situations when the people are really conscious of the fact and they overtly refuse to be photographed (or to be precise, in the case of a digital camera, "captured") To fictitious: I've taken a few good shots at the Tams last sunday (19-05), and I intend to go back the next beautiful sunday (also, to the Old Port and Old Montreal vicinity) looking for scenes, still. Thanks a lot to both of you. PH