Grumpy Old Men Confuse Me

Yesterday my boyfriend brought me to Patisserie Lebeau for brunch. It was packed in there. We put our order through and received one of our waffles then scrounged around for a seat. At the end of the little cafe, there was a wall table with a spare stool on one end of it. So I grabbed that temporarily while we waited for the second waffle. On the other side was an old man (I think in his 60s) sitting with a woman (I’m guessing his daughter maybe).

I had my dSLR out with me since it was decent day and I enjoy taking photos of food. So I went to snap a photo of the waffle. After I did, the old man said to me something along the lines of, “Why are you taking pictures of your food?” Which really took me by surprise, because in the past few years of taking pictures in restaurants, no one has ever asked me about it, and also, he actually sounded annoyed. So I answered kind of quietly and in a confused tone, “I guess I like photos of food.” He then proceeded to say to the woman, “That’s so inconsiderate! Taking photos of her food like that!”

I was totally confused and quite angry that he would call me inconsiderate. I could understand maybe if it was a nice, fancy restaurant that taking a photo with a giant dSLR might be a bit rude… But this was a small, casual cafe that was packed with people wandering around. I wasn’t bumping into anyone with the camera since we were off to the side. Nor was I taking photos of his food, I was taking photos of my own single waffle. If I was taking a photo of my boyfriend instead, would that still have offended him? And almost every restaurant I go to, I see other people taking photos of their food (although usually with a point and shoot) so I would think that people would be becoming accustomed to seeing it happen.

So for the life of me, I just couldn’t understand why he would call me inconsiderate for doing that. I really wanted to ask him and be confrontational about it, but I’m a fairly quiet person and I knew that arguing with him would’ve gone no where. However, I am still annoyed by the situation and I wish I could somehow forget it because it left a bad taste for me throughout the day.

/end rant.

Posted by tastethehappy February 2009

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