Other folks with cameras

Whilst recently editing down our snaps from our whirlwind tour of the world, I remembered an incident where we were with some relatives in the UK and one of our party took a picture of the rest of the party. I remember watching as he seemed very uncomfortable holding the camera, which he didn't do the best of ways, and he rushed the whole process as well. This has gotten me thinking about how people who use photography in a more casual way might feel about these pieces of hardware? Personally I have been using various cameras of different formats for nearly 20 years, and I can no longer remember what it feels like to hold this kind of hardware in your hands and have it intimidate me. Cameras are, small delicate yet powerful instrument capable of great truths and powerful lies, sometimes simple to operate other times completely perplexing. This power must occasionally frighten or intimidate people. Why? It is after all nothing more than a small machine awaiting your instructions, if handled well it can produce objects of great beauty, capture memories precious to the beholder, or record damming evidence that proves once and for all the existence of something. Perhaps this is what frightens people? I myself am often disappointed when making "snaps" on holidays, but am confident enough to make extra versions of images in case I'm not happy with the first attempt (even more so now with digital cameras) so why don't other folks do this? Is there a generation of people out there, used to film and it's related costs worried about the fact that maybe this picture won't work? Well sadly the more they worry the more likely the picture won't work! As usual I seem to have more questions than answers here, I feel a new Photography FAQ coming on here, we'll see. Time is of the essence here!