Guy or Gal?

Guy or Gal?

  • Guy

    Votes: 1,568 94.7%

  • Gal

    Votes: 87 5.3%
  • Total voters
    1,655
well i don't think this poll is about whether someone is thinking of changing their gender. it is about what gender you are now. use the law of the excluded middle in this one; you either are or are not a guy.
 
Hi, another one here.
I found the path to do what I wanted (I.e. photography) difficult because of being female.
If you go back, not even 10 years, and look at the gender bias in photography magazines, you may be able to see what an up hill struggle women have had, particulaly to be taken seriously.

I can even remember going along to a local camera club, and finding it full of leering old men, who had the audacity to think I was so "dizzy headed" that I had come on the wrong evening for needlework classes! Needless to say, I didnt ever go back!
Luckily things are better now, thanks partly to photographers like Cindy Sherman, for example, and as stated in past posts, the growing popularity of photography with women in general.

On a personal note, Photography is one of the best things that has happened in my life.

Oh and I am pretty geeky when it comes to equipment, chemicals etc too.
Thea
 
nomade said:
We are 49, that's not bad at all...!!
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Hey, I'm 49 and holding. :)

Seriously, I see we've dropped slightly below 6% again. :(

I swear there was a similar poll over on APUG which had women in the 15-20% or so range. I did a quick search and could not find it. Maybe I just imagined it.
 
In my relatively short career as a pro photog, I actually find that being a female has been an advantage. Mind you, my focus is portraiture, mainly maternity, babies and children. Furthermore, I would imagine that if I was doing some street photography that people may find it less intimidating that I am female?
 
macymills@mac.c said:
Furthermore, I would imagine that if I was doing some street photography that people may find it less intimidating that I am female?
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This is my impression too. I've heard horror stories about confrontations with cops, guards, and people who don't want to be photographed and such, mostly from male photographers.

I think that those in authority and people who are the subject of photographs are less likely to confront a woman, and I also have the impression that security guards and law enforcement officers are less likely to push things with a woman.

I have yet to have any truly hostile situation. I've been asked a couple of times to not shoot (LOL, once by a casino security guy who sounded more like he was begging me to please not shoot) and I've got a few cases of a "what the {f-bomb} are you doing taking my photo?" expression such as this ...

http://www.letis.com/dmr/pics/vegas/finfront/drfr09-R1-01-3_002.jpg

... but I've never been detained, had my film demanded, demanded that I "erase" the digital image (LOL) or anything like that.

On the other side of the equation, I think that women are less likely to escalate a request to not shoot into a confrontation. (We all learned at an early age that one secret to getting along with guys is to let them think they have won an argument!) :) :) :) The times I've been confronted I've always at least feigned cooperation. :) LOL!

The most amusing incident with security I've ever seen was back in 2005 when I was clearly being watched by a guard when I was shooting Cloud Gate ("The Bean") in Chicago. I know I've written about that here, but here's the blog entry if anybody wants to see it. :)

http://omababe.blogspot.com/2007/01/forbidden-images-polishing-bean.html
 
Hey, Finder. Apropos of what you wrote: The other day I mentioned the title of this thread to a bisexual friend of mine. She immediately ordered me to type in, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

(Homage to Jack Benny)
 
I'm wondering what the demographics for all photography look like. This forum is quite specialist and maybe appeals more to guys than a broader photographic community...
Rangefinder photography tends to be highly technical, often fully manual, which may place it more in the male interest zone... In my experience at least, girls tend to prefer cameras with an A or a P setting, if not fully auto. I don't think I've ever met a girl who was interested in practicing manual photography, actually.
 
Androgynous and Celibate... More shooting time that way. Plus, having attributes of both male and female makes you Agressively Sensitive, which makes for some interesting images. Actually if I had to choose one definition, I'm built like a male, have the sensitivity of a female, and am totally asexual, which makes me a 90's kind of guy. I only have two loves... my old cars and my old cameras.
 
This observation may have been made earlier in this very long thread, but I know many, many women photographers working as freelance pros, and as staff photographers for magazines (though not newspapers). At least in this part of the world photography is a profession that has seen a huge shift in gender balance. I have a feeling that one factor behind the imbalance in this poll is how much time women want to spend online discussing gear.
 
I just added my vote to the gals - I've been hanging about here unregistered and learning stuff for a couple of years, but I only just plucked up enough courage to stick my head above the parapet. I was a teenage slr user, stopped taking pictures for a few years while at university and during my first jobs and then bought a digital point and shoot. That made me take pictures again and taking pictures made me want to learn about apertures, shutter speeds etc. Sites like this one taught me a huge amount and got me into buying old cameras. And nothing teaches you about photography better than a camera that makes you make the decisions!

I currently use an LC-A and a Revue 400SE as well as a few other vintage oddities (half-frames, toy cameras whatever I can find cheap on ebay) but my Bessa R2a arrives tomorrow... the body at least. The lens (Jupiter 8) is en route from Russia. Can you imagine how impatient I'm feeling right now???
 
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