diff --git a/openphoto/__init__.py b/openphoto/__init__.py
index b192e68..c190760 100644
--- a/openphoto/__init__.py
+++ b/openphoto/__init__.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import oauth2 as oauth
 import urlparse
 import urllib
 import httplib2
+import types
 
 
 class OpenPhoto(object):
@@ -37,6 +38,11 @@ class OpenPhoto(object):
             consumer = oauth.Consumer(self.consumer_key, self.consumer_secret)
             token = oauth.Token(self.token, self.token_secret)
 
+            # ensure utf-8 encoding for all values.
+            params = dict([(k, v.encode('utf-8')
+                            if type(v) is types.UnicodeType else v)
+                           for (k, v) in params.items()])
+
             client = oauth.Client(consumer, token)
             body = urllib.urlencode(params)
             headers, content = client.request(url, "POST", body)