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I've been told that if you wear a hi-vis ("fluorescent") vest whilst taking photos then you get a lot less hassle than if you don't. This is from a friend of mine who has to take photos for surveying work, and interestingly there was an article by a photographer in the Guardian Weekend magazine saying much the same thing. I guess the psychology of the thing is "look there's someone who looks like they're doing something official, we don't need to worry." In the same minds someone "up to no good" would not want to draw this much attention to themselves.
The Neighbourhood Watch people were right: you were acting suspiciously - at least as far as they were concerned ;) They probably think there's a paedophile lurking in every bush. Most likely there were lots of people who saw you and didn't think you were suspicious - you just didn't meet them because they didn't feel the need to approach you.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road