I can understand the reluctance of pulling out a huge white lens in a situation like this but the reality is that there were probably many parents who had cameras and camcorders with a longer reach than the lens you didn't use.
When friends ask my advice on buying a point-and-shoot camera I tell them to get at least a 10x optical zoom and there are a bunch of cameras with that type of range. So, use the big lens and if anyone questions it just point out that you are taking the same shots as everyone else, just at a much higher quality level.
I'm quite sensitive nowadays to pull out the white lens in certain places ever since I had a pretty unpleasant experience at my local YMCA. I was shooting my boys swimming (posted in Sports section) one day, and the manager came over to me and asked me to stop shooting. What really made me upset was the fact thay there were (and continue to be) many parents with P&S cameras shooting pictures of their kids in the pool WITH FLASH going off every few seconds!! Some people think that if you have a big white lens, you're up to something -- whatever it may be.
Even though I knew that I could have challenged the guy in face of other parents freely taking pictures, I decided against it because I knew the guy was a good man with good intentions -- just a bit ignorant. It wasn't a big deal. So that's how I got to be rather sensitive about pulling out the white lens.
