Where can I bring my camera in public without looking like a moron?

My entire post was intended to be read as being somewhat "tongue in cheek", by the way. Yes, what you say is admirable, and worthy for all to aspire to - but I would wager that you yourself probably don't commonly walk around on the street in a polka-dotted clown-suit, either ? ...

It's the truth (in my perception). I don't revile them as human beings, but the whole bit about having a honkin' camera hanging around one's neck (in the age of widespread consumerism) seems to have become a characture of what is commonly someone who is enchanted by their own image as it appears to others in a way that it seems was (perhaps) less often the case in decades past.

Whether they have any idea what to do with their cameras is unknown to me - but cameras are the modern "bling", and they represent as much of an extension of ... ego ... as do automobiles and such accouterments of consumption, and the illusion of the mere purchasability of competence.

You should not care about what other people think about you, only what you yourself think about you. If you don't think that you are doing anything wrong, then that must be good enough for everyone else. If they judge you for no good reason, then they are not worth worrying about.

Yes, it is a bit intolerant of me to impose my own bold and foxy standards of "interesting light" on others. I never say anything - and it may be that they are able to make such things work for them.

Then again (since it has no effect), it does no harm either. It's the thought that perhaps they think it does make a difference that I find amusing. Who knows ... perhaps they have no such illusions.

Again, my post was something of an attempt at humor (regarding myself, in addition to others). Inspired by your words, I am going to take my polka-dotted clown-suit out of the closet, and wear it proudly today as I wander around with my big honkin' camera bouncing on my stomach ! ...