View Full Version : Why so many men, so few women?
I get the strong impression that (almost?) everyone here is male. Now why is that? Why are so many of us men? Or, to put it the other way around, why are so few of us women? I'd love to hear your ideas about this.
Thanks. michael
Because men loves to photograph women and women loves seeing how beautiful they actually are in the photos.
:D
Yeap i second that, i have been trying to get my girlfriend to take up photography but she says she prefers to be in the photo
....
Brian Sweeney
10-08-2004, 18:15
Even though Nikki has used the Retina IIIS I am afraid she prefers playhousedisney.com to rangefinderforum.com. It's hard to compete with the Flying Koala Brothers dropping packages from their Bi-Plane on animals in Australia.
In my experience, most women do not enjoy tinkering around with the mechanical marvels that rangefinder cameras are. They want it done easily and as automatically as possible. My sister is one of the exceptions, however she just discovered the old Mamiya-Sekor 1000 DTL that I left at her place. In another year or so she'll be ready for a Canon or Olympus rangefinder.
Originally posted by sljm
she says she prefers to be in the photo
Lucky you! None of my previous gfs liked to be my model and they always hit me on the head if I pointed my camera at other pretty girls!
:rolleyes: :D
My wife likes to use a digital camera. She complained that my R2 is filled with incomprehensible dials and levers! :(
nwcanonman
10-08-2004, 19:00
My wife rarely like to use a camera - UNTIL, I got her the digital P&S. Now that she doesn't feel like she's "wasting film", she shoots more often and is improving. She wants nothing to do with Manual/RF/SLR cameras.
Most camera specific camera elist I've been on are predominatly male. I think women prefer taking about photography, but not so much about the equipment used to do it. Guys, in general, are more tool/gadget oriented. :)
Originally posted by nwcanonman
... Guys, in general, are more tool/gadget oriented ...
That's it in a nutshell. My wife has a little point-and-shoot camera and takes good pictures with it. She is interested in composition because she wants to take pictures that are visually interesting, but she couldn't care less about the technical specifications of the equipment. She knows absolutely nothing about f-stops and shutter speeds. She just wants the pictures. Too many men obsess over the equipment and neglect making photographs.
back alley
10-08-2004, 19:34
...and they always hit me on the head if I pointed my camera at other pretty girls!
now that explains alot about kris, i think!;)
joe
Welcome to the forum, sljm!! :D
My wife isn't remotely interested in digital (yet) and has a Canon film P&S that is... OK (lens isn't so hot). She has no interest in my camera whatsoever.
On the other hand both my daughters enjoy taking pictures, so who knows? One is into digital and the other uses a Nikon FM, an excellent camera. None of them are interested in joining this or any other photo forum.
Women like doing stuff and men like talking about it, even if we don't do it?
Really though, there are some female contributors to our forum, they just aren't as loud as the rest of us.
And my wife hates being infront of the camera. She has issues, it is really bad.
They are not mechanical geeks like us. They are after the final image not the latest gizmo like us. My girlfriend shoots and has
won several photo competitions in the local photoclub.
Hand her an all mechanical camera without a meter and game over.
She is dependent on her EOS 3 on automatic to get the job done.
But she can visualize what she wants better than I can and does
get some good shots so she would never change to a RF.
She has looked thru mine before and then put them gently
back on the shelf...
From my noted experiances at my university's photography department....
Guys like to talk about the kit.
Girls like to talk about the photographers.
Guys like to talk how the photograph was made.
Girls like to talk what the photograph is.
Stu :)
maybe half of us are women, and we're just using male noms de plume.
AndColor
10-09-2004, 12:37
guys...watch out...you're going to have trouble talking with your feet in your mouth. like the taste of nike?
lh (a leica lady)
This is bad guys, AndColor called us out and we went and hid like she is mom.
We do pretty well when left alone, but I think we would all agree that having a women's opinion around here more often would offer even more diversity, "and color" to our community.
I'm wondering why people are saying that women like to gossip or talk on the phone for hours with her female friends.
This forum is a solid evidence that show the truth is in fact the other way around.
:D
Worse, some research shows that (at least high school and university) women talk about other people's problems, but (high school and university) men talk about their own.
I've been having this problem with my (photos / camera / lumbago---choose one) lately...
but back to the original thread: Simon Baron-Cohen has written a book about masculine brains vs feminine brains. He says---trust him, he's a scientist---that men's intelligence is calibrated to systems (e.g. engines, cameras, armies, etc.) and women's to relationships. But of course if men are so poor at relationships then it stands to reason that they've got to get together and talk about it, pool their slender resources. Gossip as necessary therapy for the challenged.
If we're that technical we would be extinct. Actually, it sounds like digital photography. What did you set your white balance for today? Do you really think Simon knows what a woman's brain is calibrated for.:)
I prefer not to generalise when it comes to male or female "behaviour". While I see difference in certain behaviour with many women here in Holland, at work, etc; in Mongolia I hardly notice similar differentiated behaviour. I think much has to do with society, the individual man/woman, and how much value is placed on "bonding". The whole notion of networking is mostly absent outside the professional western/westernised world, and thus many of the notions about women talking and men being technical don't apply as pronounced as they do in the West. I found that in Mongolia and India men are just as talkative and gossipy as women, and that women are often forced to be technically knowledgeable. Women just view a technical matter differently: it's got to get fixed, not yapped about.
ALL GENERALIZATIONS ARE FALSE!
Pherdinand
10-10-2004, 06:19
There's a lesbian beauty trapped in me, in fact :) (Psssst!)
Pherdinand
10-10-2004, 06:24
A year ago my girlfriend was talking alot about how she'd like to have a manual camera. A good,simple manual camera where she's the director not some chip. SO i got her a minolta slr with full manual and aperture priority only, and some lenses.
She was willing to carry the whole kit around for a week in Paris, and other places. She loves to switch lenses, to play with the aperture ring, to walk around for the best angle. She's very pleased with the gear.
But she almost never talks about it. Once i noticed that she knows what the aperture ring is doing (physically and to the DOF as well) but she had no idea that it was called "aperture".
Isn't that available for a price in the Netherlands?
Pherdinand
10-10-2004, 06:31
Originally posted by jdos2
Isn't that available for a price in the Netherlands?
What exactly?:confused:
JD, whatever you're refering to, I reckon if it's available in Holland it's available in the US as well. :)
wierdcollector
10-10-2004, 07:27
Hi AndColor,
I knew we had to have at least one female in this crew. Personally I'm glad to see a few women here too as I find their views on photography more geared toward the actual shot and content than the gear, conditions etc. I find every opinion refreshing since I tend to get stagnant in my ways if I don't have a fresh photo album or site to look at once in a while. Keep posting and I hope to see more of your work one of these days.
AndColor
10-10-2004, 09:01
Thanks Curt,
I don't post a lot of shots, but you are welcome to look at my website. <http://homepage.mac.com/andcolor/
Some of my friends think I am an equipment junkie. Not really, I just like having things I can and will use often. I don't like switching cameras a lot because the feel of each one is different and i don't want to think about it every time I shoot. The Leica and the X-Pan are all I use for film. It would drive me crazy to have any more cameras. I do use a digital of course. digis are the best learning tool ever invented.
And yes, I care much more about the shot and the interaction between me and the subject. I don't want equipment to intrude. Large lenses, mega bodies, 10,000 buttons and loud shutters are just plain annoying to me. Give me a descrete small rangefinder any day. that's this lady's opinon. ;-)
nwcanonman
10-10-2004, 10:18
AndColor,
It's great having a woman's perspective here. I too, like the small RF for street/people shots. They are quiet and non-threatning. We'd like to hear more from the women's POV :)
Rich Silfver
10-10-2004, 10:27
Linda, would it be fair to say that Hopper's work is an inspiration to your oil painting? Wonderful light.
Originally posted by AndColor
Thanks Curt,
And yes, I care much more about the shot and the interaction between me and the subject. I don't want equipment to intrude. Large lenses, mega bodies, 10,000 buttons and loud shutters are just plain annoying to me. Give me a descrete small rangefinder any day. that's this lady's opinon. ;-)
Linda
Words of wisdom, that we should all live and shoot by.
Russ
AndColor
10-10-2004, 11:20
Oh yes. I love Hopper's paintings. Especially the compositions. Also that particular American subject matter and solitude. But also, I love Vermeer. A master of light and composition. There are so many wonderful painters. Locally, Robert Bechtle, Wayne Theibaud...I couldn't begin to list them all. Sometimes though, I think the main influence on my paintings is Walker Evans. Does that put me firmly in the wishy washy camp? oh, well. thanks for asking Rich. linda
don sorsa
10-10-2004, 20:58
Maybe Karen Nakamura is here under a pseudonym...
http://www.photoethnography.com/equipment.html
nwcanonman
10-10-2004, 21:37
Being a true "individual" some of the things Diane Arbus said were profound in their simplicity. One of my favorites -
"But there's a kind of power thing about the camera. I mean everyone knows you've got some edge. You're carrying some slight magic which does something to them. It fixes them in a way":cool:
nwcanonman / nwcanonwoman
Originally posted by don sorsa
Maybe Karen Nakamura is here under a pseudonym...
http://www.photoethnography.com/equipment.html
Karen has stopped by and said hi a couple times as herself.
nwcanonman
10-11-2004, 06:28
FrankS,
My wife says thanks for acknowledgeing her also ;)
Originally posted by don sorsa
Maybe Karen Nakamura is here under a pseudonym...
http://www.photoethnography.com/equipment.html
No, she's here under her own name, but she has only ever posted once: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8620#post8620
I guess we scared her off with our warm welcome :D
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