So this guy threatened me today, and that is why I am not being silly
A few days ago, I got irritated and made a forum post. The forum post caused more bad feeling, and I deleted it. I thought I might have been overreacting, but something happened to me today that told me I was not.
A problem I have encountered, from time to time on here, is people who don't understand that not everyone has the same finances, technology, time, and ability level. There are some people who think that observations are made in a vacuum. And who don't understand why pictures come out blurry, at a distance, or are taken from a weird angle. Etc.
Often these people are also highly focused on their own taxa of interest, and don't understand why other people are not.
Today, I was observing in my local park---2 blocks from my home, just taking some easy pictures after work. I heard a man yell something at me, something about how he was going to "break my phone". I think that someone, probably with some mental health and behavior issues, didn't like the sight of me with my camera out. I didn't react at all-- to be honest, maybe he was just yelling at the sky, I don't know. And in fact, I kept my camera out and photographed a hummingbird less than a minute later. But while I was doing that, I did have a potentially violent person less than 100 feet away.
That is kind of a strong example, but there are plenty of times, while observing, that I feel nervous. A lot of the things I do could be seen as weird, even threatening. There are lots of people who would take offense, even violent offense, at someone taking pictures of (or near) their house, and probably aren't going to listen to explanations of how well posed the Spotted Towhee was.
Even without that, there are lots of other situations where things aren't as easy as they seem when looking at a picture. Walking down the slope of a roadside ditch to get a better picture of a flower isn't difficult---unless you have just bicycled 20 miles, then it takes a lot more effort than it seems at first. Maybe it is getting dark. Also, maybe I just don't have much battery power left on my camera.
I guess it is especially ironic, that while we are celebrating Pride Month, and when we have been thinking about how minority naturalists feel, in light of things like the Cooper Incident, but that people often don't connect that to practical questions like "Why would someone not feel comfortable sectioning a mushroom on someone's front lawn?"
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Oh, that's too bad! You should not have to deal with things like that. (There are advantages to being an old white woman who's ready to apologize, even these old knees help explain some of the distant or out-of-focus shots.)
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