Would you be paranoid about this man with a camera?

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

DH rides our DDs to school...it's 3 miles, they are 8 and 5. The route is along a rural cycle track...very picturesque. Towards the end of the journey today, he said there was a man on the track...with a dog and a camera.

As DH approached with DDs, the man said "I'm just taking picturs of the park" and as DH and DDs passed, DH said he thought the man took a photo of them.

Is that odd? Or is DH paranoid>? He feels he should have said something...but what? I just called him as I often do to see how the ride went...

Fully prepared to be told IABU by the way...

Not at all odd, perfectly legal and he explained what he was doing.

What possibly sinister reason could exist to justify this level of paranoia?

No

(Should say what possible reason)

I think sex offenders can access many graphic pictures of children on the Internet easily and are unlikely to bother taking photos of fully clothed children with parents, if you see what I mean? And if that's what you are worried about? In 12 years of managing sex offenders I've only come across a couple who took photos of random people, in in those cases the photos were of adults.

Wouldn't give a toss what the guy took pictures of, poor guy obviously felt paranoid.

I was once interviewing visitors to a park. Old black guy says he goes there to practice golf shots (he had a club & ball). Eventually he confessed that he just liked to go for a stroll but had to bring the golf club to stop people giving him looks, suspicious that he was doing something sinister. :(

Um...it would be slightly odd for the man to take pictures of your family. It is maybe slightly odd that he felt he had to xpalin what he was doing to your dh.

Likely he just took a photo though, rather than of your dds??

I dont think there is anything to worry about. And even if there was, the moment has passed

Nope. He even kindly put your mind at ease. Massive he took a photo of the back of your family as our made a nice shot in the sunshine but it'll be unidentifiable as it's their backs.

...And that was 12 yrs ago, before paedo paranoia went bezerk.

• maybe not massive

As I often ask on these kind of threads, can you explain exactly what you are concerned about?

If your DH thought it was inappropriate though...maybe the man was 'odd'...maybe something instinctively told your DH that the man was suspect; which we would obviously not pick up on from a description of the situation?

Some points for the umpteenth time in no particular order....

Photography is a perfectly respectable hobby and/or profession. There are literally millions of photographers in this country

Having a camera does not make you a child abuser/paedophile

You don't need permission from anyone to photograph in a public place. I don't need your permission to photograph you in public although it is polite to ask

Photo paranoia is rampant

what dreaming said ^^

What worries you about it?

I'm going out in a minute with my dog and my camera along our rural cycle path

There's nothing sinister in it, I like photography, I have a new camera I want to play with, the dog needs a walk and it's a sunny day so I'm going to amuse myself for a couple of hours in peace while the kids are at school. Is that really odd?

So many times I've noticed people discreetly (or not) taking photos with their mobiles I would probably only think oh how quaint, a camera

You pervert freddiefrog

:o

I often take a camera out with my dogs. For the main reason that I foster and it's nice to show potential adopters pics of the dogs actually doing something other than sleeping. I also like photographing my own dogs having fun.

I tell you - the day will come when people become paranoid about other people walking let alone whether they have a camera or not.

Maybe he wanted to take a picture of your dh's backside? Does he wear tight shorts and do the bum wiggle when cycling?

He amy have just thought how fantastic you're Dh and 2dds looked, cycling along. As he took a picture of their backs you've really got nothing to worry about.

We get people taking a photo of our house. I went and asked someone once if I could help them and they apologised but said it was so picturesque they couldn't resist. It really doesn't bother me.

It's very, very unlikely that this bloke was taking pictures of your family for nefarious reasons, or at all. He was standing with his camera in open view, explained what he was doing (your DH sounds quite paranoid so perhaps was eyeballing this man who then he felt he had to explain himself), and your kids were just riding their bikes. Nothing in that scenario sounds dodgy.

Unless your DH is famous and he thinks the bloke was a pap...?