I recently bought a mid level camera but my feelings of awkwardness about using it spoil the whole photographic hobby for me.

On holiday i took loads of piccys and really enjoyed messing with the settings and learning about my camera etc

At a wedding i took loads of pictures and some turned out better than the official photographers

But now i am at home and i would like to take pictures of my home town , the fountains the Victorian band stand and garden in the town park the local church St Lawrence which is a timber-framed Church dated from 1531 at the most conservative estimate.

BUT i can't i feel people will see me with a camera and think "pedo!!"

so i will have to wait for holidays and special events before the camera comes out :(

Do any of you not pursue perfectly innocent hobbies that you can't due to what people might thing or say.

Most people have a dig at Karaoke but when they have actually been to a good karaoke night there opinion changes but the overall opinion of karaoke is its cheap nasty , down market and full of wannabe weirdos.I often get embarrassed when people say what do you do for a living and i say karaoke host , they are often not afraid to say i hate karaoke.

I like observing the moon too but my neighbours would call the council if i had a telescope in my back garden so that hobby is out too.

Or an Islamic jihadist looking for the next target. At least you're not likely to find yourself languishing in gaol.

A couple of interesting snippets from 70 years ago.

[Link: eureferendum.blogspot.com]

[Link: eureferendum.blogspot.com]

not really, but I am not a terrorist or a pedo :)

but seriously, even though I would not let it affect me and would do what I like. , I understand what you mean, I love to buy movies and sometimes when people have seen me buy a few times or if a frined says I collect movies they ask how many I have, I either go with more then 10 or more then 100 depending on the situation, in the end it is none of their business and I want to avoid the look or worst the comments "wow you spend a lot on movies you must be rich", "don't you know you can DL them for free", "why don't you rent, it is cheaper", "I am sure you have not seen most more then once", "do you just buy movies so that you can say you have a lot".....

well i love karaoke too and collect CDG discs and people think its ok to say i hate karaoke its awful. I would never do that about a hobby someone does eg" i collect baseball cards " ---"oh i hate baseball and baseball is awful" but it seems a standard response for karaoke.
so in real life i don't bang on about karaoke ..just on forums lol..even though i earn a living hosting nights and i don't get my camera out either.

maybe i worry too much about what people think..some one once said "opinions are like a$$holes everyone has one" ..lol

Being a Hereford United supporter can be a little embarrassing these days . . . "You support that shower of $%@£!"

Trouble is I can't, in all honesty, disagree.

You should get out and enjoy yourself.

Don't worry about peoples opinions, by the time you get home & look at all the great pictures you captured, you will never remember who was looking or what people were thinking.

I remember one of the first times I brought my gear out into public, I was trying to photograph some interesting shots in NYC, and I could swear that all 1,000,000 people were staring at me, all at the same time. I felt like I was almost doing something wrong.

Well, when I look back at all the amazing shots I took, I laugh at how silly I felt. It is completely in your own mind.

Just go out & have fun. I'm sure you already are wishing that you just took those damn photos already, so just do it.

Its built into us to think we are the center of the universe. When we walk into a store or pull out our camera we get this "are they watching me" feeling. The truth is that they are in their world and we are in ours. The guy you thought looked at you funny was probably trying to calculate his taxes for this quarter and the lady who turned to look might have gotten a mosquito in her eye.

Live your life, do what makes you happy and pay no attention to anyone else.

When i read "pedo" in your post it made me think of peep show. The guy on the right.. is picked on by the neighborhood kids whenever he enters or leaves his building. They yell PEDO in one of the confrontations.