OT: feeling awkward shooting in public

As others have mentioned shooting from the waist is a fantastic way of photographing people in public. Aiming a camera directly at people is like pointing a gun at them, whereas looking down into the fold-out screen at right angles to them puts you in a very passive posture - people tend to ignore you in this posture. This is why the old twin lens reflex cameras were good for this.

Cheers, Graeme