I had an event a few weeks ago where I was taking pictures, but the line got too long, so I wanted to speed things up. Someone was sitting in my chair waiting for the picture when I decided I needed to cut out the picture taking. After explaining this, a dad bystander offered to take them. I thought, "Oh, yay!"
He ended up taking about 3 and just when I was thinking how selfless a guy he was to help me out just to be helping, he said, "Well that's all of my kids." and handed me back the camera.
If you can round up the people that are sitting around watching and not really waiting to be painted, maybe you can ask them to take pictures while they wait. That way they're right at your table and not running off with your camera. They'll be right there in your line of sight. Maybe, ask them if they can take pictures while they're waiting and when they're ready to head off, have them hand the camera back? A thought.
