This reminds of a time when I had an encounter with pitchfork branding parents. I can laugh now but at the time, it unsettled me.
We have a big park the top of our street and long story short, I was walking through it one morning with a 7D and a 180mm macro lens. I was minding my own business and on my way to photograph some local snowdrops. The top end of the park has kid's slides, swings, etc and I got the usual 'what you taking photos of mista?' as I passed some kids. My usual reply is 'wildlife' and this is what I said on the day in question. I carried on, thought nothing more of it and proceeded to the snowdrops, which weren't far from the park but secluded enough. A little while longer, I hear an adult, she was shouting 'are you allright' over and over. I ignored it, not thinking she meant me. Another lady turned up, with much the same approach. They both came up to me and questioned me on what photos I'd been taking. They were obviously unhappy.
They then told me that some other parents had phoned the police. I said 'that's fine, I'll wait for them.' 20 minutes later, the police turned up and spoke to a crowd by now of about 15 parents, with kids running about them. The police then approached me and I explained my side of the story. They were brand new, actually really nice people and told me to 'just enjoy my day taking photos'. They went back to the baying by now crowd and give them a word in their ears as it was a waste of time for the police.
Dale 1 - Parents With Pitchforks 0.
It did upset me for a while afterwards and even now, all these years later, I'm reluctant to walk through the park with a camera. The thing is though, I would bet a decent amount of money that everyone of the adults involved would have had a camera in their pockets, ie, a phone and probably some of them had taken pictures in the park of kids that day. As soon as somebody turned up with something that actually looks like a real camera, that person gets criminalised.
One parent who was with the crowd has actually become one of my besties, as he became one of the 'Dad's Club' at the school gates a few years later.
It's not so bad in our village now, as I am known by most folk as 'Dale the photographer'.
I feel uncomfortabe nowadays sometimes, particularly in a wildlife situation. A lot of the time, I'm walking along rivers on public footpaths. I've learned not to walk to sites in camo gear, I carry that in a back pack now and put it on when I get to the site. I really do dread somebody coming along though, as I use scrim netting too and in fariness, this might be found to be concerning by Joe Public. I tend nowadays to set up where people are unlikely to be. This can involve a long walk and I sometimes bump into folk during this walk. Most of them are great, will chat nicely but some immediately think you're up to no good. Thankfully, not many.
The drone above was near a dam not that far from where I live. I know the nest in question too and in fairness, the guy was sat a good way from it, well over 300 metres. I don't know where his drone was of course. The nest site is dripping with cameras, there's even a live feed to the cafe near the dam. Nobody would get away with any ill intent there.
