Mary Doo Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I just counted my camera club's membership roster as of the end of September: There are currently 69 females out of 159 registered members. This translates to about 45%. So it appears that photography is an equal opportunity hobby, just as IT is an equal opportunity career. Guys, from my observation, female camera club members are every bit as serious about photography as their male counterparts. So no condescension is needed. LOL! One curious observation, however, photo forums are mostly frequented by male posters. I wonder if the wives and mothers are too busy cooking, cleaning, or picking after hubbies? :) Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcphotography Posted October 3, 2008 Author Share Posted October 3, 2008 Mary, could you have that many female members because you, the head of the club, are a female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmitchell Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Lex, I came by that nice slash via tarsal tunnel surgery. It was supposed to fix the pain in my foot. It didn't. Glad you got a kick out of it. I just thought that statement was so hilarious...Most women go through a photography "phase" during which they take lots of pictures of themselves and their feet and then drop it. Gotta love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpo3136b Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Are there more women? All women, especially attractive, available women, should register their professional interest in photography with me! I wouldn't know; but, if you ever catch me before my morning coffee, I would suggest that you might find a nice, charming, socially engaging person to be someone who would seem to offer you a better business experience than I might on my grouchier days. Not to say that one can determine everything based on gender, but, truth is, just by virtue of being who we are, sometimes we are (like me) not always putting our best image forward. My guess is that there are, or soon will be, equal numbers of men and women in photography. Face it, sex has almost nothing to do with using the buttons on the camera. But, I can tell you that in my local community, almost every job that is perceived as requiring someone who is socially nice will be an occupation in which women seem to be much more likely to be hired. In practice, they'll dominate. It may be more of a matter of social perceptions and preconceptions than an actual merit-based or virtue-based drive for decision. That said, I'm grouchy and opinionated, and I know it. I'm sure that would affect anyone's decision to hire me; not only for photography (like, would you want to hire a grouch to photo your wedding? I wouldn't), but for anything. The creativity thing, I think, is in a way, like social preconceptions and pressures about jobs. Are women more creative? That's nonsense. Are men more athletic? Also nonsense. It may seem to make sense on the surface, but that's because of the mores inside ourselves that we bring to the problem when we evaluate the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpo3136b Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Christine, if that photo of your foot was your "photography phase" . . . we're gonna need one of those makeup people at your next shoot! Seriously, though, pull on a black evening dress, get some kind of nice black heels and a good lighting setup, and shoot that foot again. I'll bet you'll score the avant-garde photo of the year! Image of femininity clashes with brutal scar. "6/6" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpo3136b Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Lex, "lofty standards"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petemillis Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Women do have an advantage really - because they don't understand the complicated nature of cameras the technical side just doesn't matter so they just go out a press the button and take pictures. Some of them are really quite good. Blokes do like technical stuff more, which has a distinct disadvantage because it results in them sitting indoors all day twiddling with their knobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yog_sothoth Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 "Perhaps their intentions are good, but paperbound researchers tend to confuse correlation with causality, hence the ridiculous conclusions you see quoted by the news media every day." What you are suffering from is a sampling error. Try reading scientific journals and not CNN if you want to see how scientists work. Pons and Fleischman got on to CNN and a lot of international media attention, but they did not get scientific acceptance. Based on CNN one would think that 99% of photographers specialize in celebrities, sports, politicians, and disasters. Very few weddings and family portraits make it onto CNN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 <i>"Blokes do like technical stuff more, which has a distinct disadvantage because it results in them sitting indoors all day twiddling with their knobs."</i><p> That would explain why my grandmother and other women in my family could operate sewing machines that gave me a headache trying to figure out.<p> Most people don't gravitate toward technical pursuits merely because they enjoy knob twiddling. They master the knob twiddling because of a passion for the pursuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 <i>"Blokes do like technical stuff more, which has a distinct disadvantage because it results in them sitting indoors all day twiddling with their knobs."</i><p> That would explain why my grandmother and other women in my family could operate sewing machines that gave me a headache trying to figure out.<p> Most people don't gravitate toward technical pursuits merely because they enjoy knob twiddling. They master the knob twiddling because of a passion for the pursuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 And there's your proof! I couldn't even master the dadgum choice between plain text and HTML! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Doo Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 <b>"Mary, could you have that many female members because you, the head of the club, are a female?</b> <p>Andrew, I am no longer prez of my camera club, as I have served my two-year term as of this summer. Interestingly, the current president is also female. In the club's 80 years' history, we never had women presidents until recently. <p>Anyhow, to answer your question, this "equal opportunity hobby" has nothing to do with who is prez. Today, we happened to have conducted an international salon, and there were visiting reps from our affiliated associations: PSA (Phtographic Society of America) and NECCC (New England Camera Club Council). So I asked them this same question re the gender distribution of these larger bodies. Their observation, not surprisingly, approximate my club's statistics: just about slightly less than 50% are female. Incidentally, this is the the gender distribution of the workers of the salon: 4 men and 6 women. The co-chairs of the salon consist a man and a woman. <p>So Pete, I believe women photographers don't "just go out to press the button and take pictures" any more than men. Kindly be informed that some of the best photographers are women. <p>Thanks,<br>Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack_welsh Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 More female photographers than male? If that is the case, it sure isn't representated on PN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christopher hartt dallas Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Interesting question - I don't have any stats. Something similar crossed my mind when I spoke at a Seminar for beginning wedding photographers a few weeks ago. My session had 296 women and 11 men. The Seminar was advertised in local newspapers and several photo magazines. The disparity in numbers had me wondering why so many more women than men? ...I'm pretty confident it had nothing to do with my 'looks like George Costanza' good looks. Just an interesting observation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 <i>"More female photographers than male? If that is the case, it sure isn't representated on PN!"</i><p> Neither is good sense. But no one is excludated on that basis either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geri_anderson Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 hmmmm....One of my best, early photographs were of my feet. Because of the angle, lighting, b&w grain, etc. they looked like the feet of a member of an exotic/wild/primitive tribe. It was also my first sale. Now I've moved up higher on the body! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arjun_mehra Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Most of the people I see walking around with S.L.R.s are male, though the ratio of men:women whom I see with point-and-shoots (digital) might lean in favor of the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambers-photos Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 i agree with lex there are a lot more active males on PN but in the studio i managed we never had a guy photographer im not sure why but 90% of our applicants were female i do remember one guy i interviewed and he was nervous about dealing with kids so he declined his second interview. Amber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack_welsh Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 I do feel that women are more incline to photograph weddings, and portraits, children especially. As Amber mentioned the guy who was nervous about dealing with kids. Men are more incline to photograph commercial work. So, maybe the answer is it depends on what's being photographed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Doo Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 Jack, it appears the average gender distribution at camera clubs are loosely about 50-50, perhaps with the male edging a bit to maybe 55%-60%. Camera club members are mostly enthusiastic amateurs and the general subject of interest is nature, such as landscape, wildlife, macro. Surely some members also enjoy weddings, portraiture, and photojournalism, but these are usually not the main theme of interest. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack_welsh Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 M.D., your right. I should have said that I was refering to pro photographers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catherinevankempen Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 ... Most of the people I see walking around with S.L.R.s are male ... Could this maybe have something to do with a man's obsession with the size of his "equipment" :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arjun_mehra Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillsphotos Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 As a network engineer for a nationwide ISP, and a photographer, I can tell you that there are a lot of us women who rather enjoy the "technical" side of things. While I am very feminine and quite hetro, not all of us care to be Suzy Homemaker or Nurse Nancy. Not that those are not valid and rewarding occupations, but fixing such things as routing problems in the backbone of the Internet so that traffic can get there in less hops has it's own rewards, odd as that sounds. In my local camera club, membership runs about 60/40 in favor of the men, but, among my circle of photographer friends all but one are women. Girl Geeks Rule! Besides, someone has to show the guys how to make the coffee! Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham_thompson1 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Catherine is correct. I always have a 105 2.8 Macro with hood for walkabouts. It look so sexy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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