I was at a social picnic in a large park in Sydney with people I knew. Everyone was happy for me to wander around taking shots of them relaxing and having a good time. When my group started a game of cricket I slipped on my long telephoto lens and shot away at people bowling, batting etc. It was all good until I was suddenly confronted by a very angry woman from another group picnicing nearby accusing me of photographing her group, in particular her children. In all honesty I had not noticed her group in the background, and in any case they were all out of focus.
This woman went right off demanding to see what photos I had taken of her group. I duly showed her my images pointing out the fact that any you could see of her group in the background were way out of focus. I politely explained to her that I was only taking shots of my friends and apologised if she thought I was focused on her group. She was not satisfied accusing me of being able to doctor the images to make them clearer and posting them on the internet. This woman was severely paranoid. She demanded that I erase all my images taken that day. I refused to do that but did delete all that had her group in the background.
Not satisfied with my deleting some of my images she took off back to her group then went to report me to the park rangers.
When the rangers arrived she again started this tirade of abuse at me demanding they order me to delete all of my images. I showed the rangers what I had taken, explained what I had deleted, and they were quite happy with what I had on the camera and were also quite happy for me to continue taking shots of my friends. One ranger pulled me aside and apologised and suggested that I not point the camera in her direction agreeing with me the woman was far too paranoid.
In the end her group moved, we stayed but the whole incident left a bad taste in my mouth and I do not take my gear, or any shots, in public places where kids maybe about.