Last night I was out with my friend Eduardo from Different Spain for a short tapeo. I got to our first stop a bit early so, while I was waiting for Edu, I took some photos of the place in case I liked it enough to put in my Sevilla Tapas blog. No problem. Got a few outside and interior shots and, though the waitress looked at me with curiosity, she didn’t say anything. When Edu arrived he took his iPhone inside to take a few pictures and the cook told him that the manager didn’t allow people to take photos. Huh?

Then I remembered one time I was in El Corte Inglés and saw somebody taking a photo of something on a shelf, presumably to remember a price or show someone at home, and the security guard came up and told him he wasn’t allowed to take photos.

So this morning I asked on Twitter if it is actually legal for a place that is open to the public to ban photo taking and the general response was that it was at the discretion of owner/manager, regardless of the location being open to the public. Someone also pointed out that many museums and monuments don’t allow photos, but in those places you are clearly warned with signs when you walk in. Somone else mentioned that once they were in a London bar and were told they could take photos of the bar but not of the bottles on the shelves (eh?). It was also mentioned that in many railway stations they don’t like people taking photos.

What’s been your experience? I’ve never thought twice about taking photos of the restaurants and tapas bars I visit, and to date have never had anyone tell me I couldn’t. I can’t imagine why they would.

[also posted on azahar’s Sevilla blog]