Today I had a wonderful walk around a local town with my camera. I’ve never done this before, I walk lots and take pictures lots, but I usually have the family or the dog in tow. Today was different, I did the whole photographers things and took my camera out to see what I could find.

Thankfully I got some great photos and learnt a lot about street photography (settings and the like), but one interaction made me cut my visit very short.

When I was waiting for a car to move to get a shot I wanted, somebody was hovering around me. Something just seemed off, he walked towards me, stopped and then just began to act weird. He was taking photos of a random shop (nothing very interesting about it) on his phone and sneaking a peak my way every so often.

I decided to leave the shot and walk away because he made me feel uneasy having my camera out. Thankfully, I have an A7c with a 85mm prime attached, so I can fit it in my coat inside pocket. Once he has gone, I stopped to take another shot, and another man approached me (you can see him sat in this photo). He began to ask about my “gold camera” (it’s silver) and how nice it looked. Which is cool, I am all up for getting people interested in cameras, but then he started asking me how much it was worth and if I had insurance.

At this point, I asked him to have a good day and got the hell out of there. They both just made me feel uneasy, so I trusted my gut.

I hope this doesn’t often happen and is just bad luck on my first time out.