if he wanted to approach her about the pics, he should've just started with saying he's a professional photographer, that he was taking pics in the airport and there are some that have her child in them, etc. here's my card

rather than approaching her about the kid, implying that he's been observing the woman and her child the entire flight, since the airport, and then bring it up

i'd imagine that's where that convo went left.

or she might just be an angry woman
or have one of those kids that every random person seems to want to take a pic of
i had one of those kids and it's a bit unnerving
i just routinely said no to anyone asking permission and asked people to stop taking pics whenever i noticed

i don't think i ever kirked out on anyone but can imagine wrong moment, wrong time, wrong person and that might've happened... especially since there were often racial/racist motivations in our case