Just Because I'm Taking Photos Does Not Make Me A Terrorist

So it's not just my personal paranoia.

I've been out with my camera quite a bit over the past few days and have, on a few occasions, chickened out of capturing a nice scene because there were some young children around. Around as in not even in the shot, but I was still too worried about what their parents might think, to even take my camera out of my bag.

No-one would want a return to the days when potential abuse of children was overlooked or brushed under the carpet, but surely there must be a safe centre-ground.

I probably should have included a link to this from a week or so ago.

It does seem that there's another story about some innocent photographer getting stopped every week in the news pages of Amateur Photographer magazine.

I took this photo about 18 months ago, which I still think is quite a joyous shot of kids mucking around as the waves wash over the promenade at the seaside. That was taken in a popular tourist site with a compact camera. You just know that if my SLR came out, there'd be suspicious parents convinced I was a paedophile.

Hanging around kids playgrounds probably isn't the most sensible thing to do, but if we start getting paranoid about getting our cameras out, then there's something wrong with the world. I believe that in North Korea they get don't like just anyone taking pictures of anything. I'd hope that we don't share too many similarities with the burghers of Pyongyang.