Public photography fears

I was at a beach early one morning, some time ago now. I had arrived for first light and stayed through the sunrise. This beach-side town was very active and at first light there was already people active on this beach and by sunrise it was a veritable hive of activity. I was there taking photographs of the sun as it rose over the ocean, trying to capture the silhouette of one of the container ships in front of the rising sun and just generally seeing what other compositions I could find for an interesting sunrise photo.