[stevebrot]

I am glad to see input from several of the best contributors to PF...those who just happen to have a full complement of X chromosomes.

Men only? Hardly. Male dominated? Unfortunately.

Steve

(Not particularly fond of huge lenses...chose not to participate in the poll...)

[Ratmagiclady]

Men only? Hardly. Male dominated? Unfortunately.

Eh, FWIW, most of the guys here, gear-lovers or not, have their heads on straight about it, I think. There's sort of some stereotypes at play that way, too, almost some overcompensation. It's OK to like stuff.

Where it can get obnoxious seems to be where some folks out there in the trades kind of have a class/status thing about the expensive stuff, immediately thinking, 'Oh, you don't take it seriously, if you don't choose/can't afford brand X. Your work must suck if you haven't gotten the money together for this or that thing.'

And sometimes a bit of, 'The girls'll want this cute little pink K-x,' thing. Having gotten my start out there trying to work with a number of chrome-finished cameras, I have to say sometimes it's just one more thing working against you if your stuff doesn't look 'all business,' (a little wear and brassing on stuff doesn't hurt, even if you didn't put it there, says you've been around the block a few times, and 'Daddy didn't buy you that,' ) Of course, just for fun, nothing wrong with a pretty thing.

It's one thing about the Pentaxian crowd: the dudes have a bit of experience in the former thing: Nikonians and Canonians talking trash and whatever can kind of get the general idea across what gals can go through. I think that actually in practice out there, the gear-snobbery-sexism connection's really been eroded by plenty of gals out there working and doing good stuff.

I think Pentax people have always kind of had a bit of an outsider-mentality, not too affected by the whole status symbol thing: I remember the difference pretty well: a Pentaxian, if they said, 'you should shoot Pentax,' they'd be like, after talking a while, handing you an LX and saying, "Oh, you're gonna love this." (He was right, too. ) It's cause they like em, even if there's a note of accustomed defensiveness these days.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong, even, with having 'Cameras' for a hobby, as opposed to 'Photography,' so much. Some people collect model trains, aren't ever going to be civil engineers... Why not.

There's kind of a stereotype about 'boys and their toys,' (often a self-deprecating one from boys, themselves.) ... Well, OK. A lot of the work I've done in the photographic field didn't involve shooting, or at least not having to be the greatest photographer ever, (Sometimes it helps to pretend, though, ) ...this is all part of the trade and hobby and everything.

[nnyorkie]

At a recent weekend workshop, the group was split, 7 men and 7 women. But I have noticed that more men are vocal and active in online forums, mostly talking about gear.

[reeftool]

All 3 of my daughters have taken up photography as a hobby. They started with my old hand me down film cameras and moved on to their own gear.

[Ratmagiclady]

All 3 of my daughters have taken up photography as a hobby. They started with my old hand me down film cameras and moved on to their own gear.

That made me think... when I look at the younger kids, it's mostly the little girls who are interested in my cameras and photo/video in general. Suppose I've just tended to assume it's my own influence, (I did sort of have a little imitator in the person of one of my friend's daughters, I'd hand her my bridge camera in 'simple mode' and she'd run around snapping away and buttering people up for me. Really sociable kid, and she seemed to love that my Lumix actually looks like a mini-SLR. )

Do wonder now, thinking about it, if the digital age hasn't actually shifted the photo thing into more of a social-computer-networking-type activity than the same as it was. If you actually look around at who's sporting most of the cameras in this town, well, hrm.

[mel]

There many stereotypes in play in the real world (as opposed to the online world) as well. Once at one of my kids' baseball games, as I was perched on top of the dugout shooting, one of the coaches asked me if I was a scrapbooker. If I had been on the ground I might have decked him (kidding kidding!). I found that to be rather insulting. I'm a mommy so of COURSE I'm a scrapbooker and not a serious photographer.

[Ratmagiclady]

Ow. Scrapbooker. I don't think I fit the profile for that, at least.

If it happens again, you could be all Wednesday Addams and say, "No. Collages. I make lots and lots of collages."

[chinotenshi]

I'm a girly-girl. Well, not really, but yeah. Female.


I will say, that after going to a few places here in Japan that are usually packed full of amateur photographers (motor show and a plum blossom festival I go to yearly), 98% of the photographers I see are male. Close to half of the women I see with DSLRs are middle age or older women who have taken up photography as a hobby with their husbands.

Image to show what I'm talking about


I did recently sit next to a younger woman, probably 20s, at a ramen restaurant who was showing off her new K-x to her friend. I had my K200D with me and we went on for a bit talking about how Pentax just fits into our hands a lot better than Nikon or Canons.

[mel]

I'm a girly-girl. Well, not really, but yeah. Female.


I will say, that after going to a few places here in Japan that are usually packed full of amateur photographers (motor show and a plum blossom festival I go to yearly), 98% of the photographers I see are male. Close to half of the women I see with DSLRs are middle age or older women who have taken up photography as a hobby with their husbands.

Image to show what I'm talking about


I did recently sit next to a younger woman, probably 20s, at a ramen restaurant who was showing off her new K-x to her friend. I had my K200D with me and we went on for a bit talking about how Pentax just fits into our hands a lot better than Nikon or Canons.

I guess I would qualify as one of those middle aged women but not taking it up as a hobby with my husband. I've been shooting an SLR for close to 30 years and grew up with a darkroom in the house.

(OMG I'm middle aged?!? When the H did that happen????)

[MRRiley]

Diane Arbus
Dorothea Lang
Berenice Abbott
Julia Margaret Cameron
Margaret Bourke-White
Imogene Cunningham
Helen Levitt
Lisette Model
Tina Modotti
Ilse Bing
Cindy Sherman
Lee Miller
Ruth Bernhard
Anne Geddes
Annie Leibovitz
Sally Mann
Sheila Metzner
Tina Modotti
Joyce Tenneson
Linde Waidhofer
I could go on and on but its really a moot point...

not to mention any of the outstanding photographer women that we have on this forum...

Mike

[chinotenshi]

I guess I would qualify as one of those middle aged women but not taking it up as a hobby with my husband. I've been shooting an SLR for close to 30 years and grew up with a darkroom in the house.

(OMG I'm middle aged?!? When the H did that happen????)

If you've been shooting an SLR for 30 years and grew up with a darkroom, I don't think you qualify as a "middle aged woman doing photography with their husband as a hobby". You just qualify as a female photographer who I am jealous of. Man I wish I had had a darkroom when I was little.

[ChrisPlatt]

I've never met a scrapbooker. Not sure we have any here in New York.
Maybe I'll go hang around at Michael's and see if they actually exist...

Chris

[Ratmagiclady]

I'm a girly-girl. Well, not really, but yeah. Female.

I think the whole butch-femme thing got past me somewhere along the line back there.

Maybe it's middle age, depending where that's supposed to start these days.

I will say, that after going to a few places here in Japan that are usually packed full of amateur photographers (motor show and a plum blossom festival I go to yearly), 98% of the photographers I see are male. Close to half of the women I see with DSLRs are middle age or older women who have taken up photography as a hobby with their husbands.

I did recently sit next to a younger woman, probably 20s, at a ramen restaurant who was showing off her new K-x to her friend. I had my K200D with me and we went on for a bit talking about how Pentax just fits into our hands a lot better than Nikon or Canons.

Hee, it's interesting about Japan, though my impression is they guys there just *loove* photography and gear there. That's where the medium format rangefinders go. I wonder if it's fewer women or just *lots more dudes.*

Almost everyone seems to like the Pentax ergonomics, though: fortunately, my hands aren't very small, thus OK with nearly everything, in that it's pretty easy to make me 'mostly-happy,' but if how something *feels* is highly-important to you, getting more in the high nineties is just really special. It was actually handling a K200d, (all I had a chance to, before getting my K20d sight-unseen, ) that made me figure, "If they can make the basic one feel like this, they can make the bigger one right." I've been really extremely happy with the feel, here, though: I pretty much shoot with my whole body, and a soft release is worth at least a couple of stops of shake reduction on anything like a good day.

I wonder if Pentax oughtn't to market to gals more about *that* than with flashy colors. It's my biggest curiosity about the K-7, for all the tech-talk. "What does that feel like?"

[Jasvox]

I don't think Photography is a male dominated hobby/profession whatsoever...I do think participating in web forums is a male dominated hobby/past time though.

Jason

[Ratmagiclady]

I don't think Photography is a male dominated hobby/profession whatsoever...I do think participating in web forums is a male dominated hobby/past time though.

Jason

You haven't, it seems, encountered the fiber arts hobby.