Is it fair that I was annoyed by this?

[Anonymous]

I went to the local beach today for some fresh air since I was in town for something anyway. The water was very still (no waves) and it’s probably very rare to get a photo of it during this time of year that still. There was a family of English tourists that must have been there for a while. They saw me park, they saw me taking photos and videos of the water. The beach was very quiet and not many people around. Yet their children decided to go next to me, not sure what they were doing but they mentioned that I was there.

I moved a bit away from them. Decided to get a photo of the mountains and water behind me. Their dog happened to run around that area after I got there. My camera wasn’t even pointing at the dog, my camera was at my head and facing me. It was very obvious that I was taking a photo with the background behind me. Yet the mother starting kicking off saying “she’s trying to take photos of the dog”. So I ended up having to walk far away from them just so I could take photos and make it very CLEAR I was taking photos of me with the mountains in the background.

Feeling a bit deflated and annoyed just now. I went to go for fresh air and some peace and it turned into being accused of something that I clearly was not doing. What is wrong with people?

[KostasKouvalis]

Why am I not surprised? I read a story of some Swiss tourists getting beaten on an English beach for "taking pictures of children." I love English people, bur I don't know what it is with them and photography! That's just paranoia! But never in my life have I heard of someone throwing a hissy fit for having their dog photographed. I don't know what it is with the English and photography on beaches. Don't they realize beaches are a public place and it's not illegal to take pictures of anything that might be in the background in a public place

[Asker]

I know! I wasn’t actually taking a photo of my phone of myself. So I wasn’t even using the back camera of my phone, I was using the front one. And the dog happened to walk past the back camera! But they assumed I was taking a photo of the dog and started getting angry. So I moved away from them to take here photos of myself just to prove I wasn’t! And to prove I was actually taking photos using the front camera but I shouldn’t have to do that! Just wanted a quiet peaceful moment at the beach. I have English friends but I think tourists need to be mindful of others. Some people need to realise not everything is about them! Shame you can’t just go out in peace anymore

[Emanon25]

It’s not fair, it happened, just ignore it so you don’t mess up your day.

[strateguy632]

no.,