Picture this.....Have you been here?

Never happened to me ever, and I'm "The Guy" who often sticks out at events because I'm taking so many pictures and have often been carrying bags of equipment.  I've shot everything from P&S to higher end SLR's with ungainly big lenses.  Occasionally, I hear the "My that's a big lens" joke, or "Are you a professiona", but mostly people just want to learn about the equipment or techniques.  Perhaps attitude has something to do with how someone takes comments?