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Female Vs Male Photographers

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Started 3 years ago by NikoDoby
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NikoDoby

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So I had a long discussion with a coworker about who makes a better photographer, girls or guys. Seeing as how this forum (and a great deal of the others I read) have a girl to guy ratio of 2 to 5 billion, it would seem that photography is a male dominated "sport".

Why? The female photographers I know have all been very social and easy going. Most of the male photogs are pricks, territorial and conceited. I know very few male photogs that are friendly and happy to help others with their photography.

I think guys are just more tech oriented than girls. None of the women photographers I know care about camera specs or what's rumored to be released unless they are actually in the market for new gear. The guys are always talking about the next big thing and putting down each others choice of equipment. Guy photogs always say stuff like, "mine's bigger than yours" or "my camera was highly recommended by dpreview and yours wasn't", etc.

How have the male and female photographers you've met compare?

Posted 3 years ago #
poster

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I would have to agree on the tech oriented idea. I have noticed that too, women don't tend to care what specs their gear has or how it compares with other brands.

I know a few gear heads who of course compare their photographic "penises". Quite sad really. I still have a colleague who gives me shit for having "only" two lenses. (primes)
I mean, I know what I shoot, and I only own what I presently need. No point in accumulating things that will only never be used. That's my philosophy at least.

He spent at least 6k on his gear, bought macro lenses, telephoto , you name it he has it. And of course he doesn't use it. his photography sucks too. Spends too much time worrying about the next best thing, rather than his skills and technique. Biggest douche I have ever met actually.

i mean really we all talk about, just like about any other tech, be it HDTVs, game consoles, mp3 players, cars or bikes. That's what men do.

Posted 3 years ago #
warprints

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Oh, I don't have time to respond to this question. I'm way too busy surfing the net for deals on lenses and stuff -- I've gotta be sure I always have more stuff than those girls have. Imagine how humiliating it would be to run into a girl photog who had a bigger lense. OMG !!!

Posted 3 years ago #
Gentoo

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I tend to agree on most points. Men are just tech junkies, there's no getting around that. I am very guilty of that as any of you who read my posts can attest lol. I think us guys need the latest and greatest before we even start to think about what we're doing. We will work on our technique but only after we have the tools we WANT vs. NEED. Women just seem to be happy if the thing works and they work on technique much sooner as a result. The two female photographers I know (aprille being one of them) are great at what they do. I have great equipment but will still screw things up royally at times.

Posted 3 years ago #
ShadeofBlue

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I don't really know many photographers. My parents are both pretty heavily into it, though, and my dad definitely has more knowledge about the tech side, but he considers lenses that cost $200 to be "too expensive" so he certainly isn't waving his superior gear around. He has an F, F2 and F3, so getting good, cheap lenses used isn't actually that hard, he just bought a pre-AI 24mm, f/2.8 for $50, for instance.

The only other photographer I know is a Pro, who's a friend of my dad. He's a big gearhead, and always has the latest gear, but he is definitely not an ass about it. In fact, he loves the D40, for instance. Part of the reason he has fancy equipment is that he says it really attracts customers. He bought a Hasselblad, and even though he likes his D3 better, he's not selling the Hassy since he's making money just by his clients seeing it. I guess that's just how the photo world works sometimes.

As for the male:female ratio, I don't know if this board's ratio is indicative of the real-life ratio of photographers. This is the internet after all and girls don't exist on the internet, as we all know :).

Posted 3 years ago #
Johndbr

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If we didn't have any "tech junkies", we might not have cameras at all. Someone has to come up with all these ideas and inventions. Also if everyone didn't care about the new products coming out, eventually there wouldn't be any.

Posted 3 years ago #
PB PM

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As for the number of photographers, male vs female, its actually very even. I shoot in public parks, bird sanctuaries, and places like that and although the men tend to have more DSLRs and gear than females, the ratio of people with cameras is about the same. The female photographers that I know tend to be better at composition, and capturing emotion in a scene.

Posted 3 years ago #
mb

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I know a few award wining photographers, not many but few and most of them are male and some are female.
Most of them do not have much “in depth” technical knowledge and most are not interested in that, but the photographs they make are stunning and I really could not say how the quality and looks relate to gender.

Posted 3 years ago #
jonnyapple

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I don't think gender matters as far as who's the better photographer.

About the gear thing, the male photographers I know care a lot more about that, but that's about par in my experience for any tools. I won a miter saw in a drawing and my wife just said "What's a miter saw?" I told her all the cool things I'm going to be able to do with it, but all she cared about is how she thinks we don't have anywhere to store it. More to the point, I was talking with a pro wedding photographer last month and although she did know that she owns a D700, when I asked her what lenses she uses she said, "I don't know. One of them is 17 or 18 something..." I didn't press the point because I could tell she was a little embarrassed for not knowing, but she's probably got better gear than me and didn't give her lenses another thought after buying them and finding out what situations they were good for. Will her photographs be any worse for it? I'd say not necessarily.

I should also mention, though, that once my neighbors see pictures of their kids that I've taken, it's usually the moms that ask what kind of camera they could buy to get pictures like that. Probably the dads will have the specs memorized first, though.

Posted 3 years ago #
NSXType-R

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Not to talk down to the female photographer, but if you don't know the difference between a 14-24 2.8 and a 200mm 2.8, your photography might be a little weird.

Obviously it's not all about the tech, but I wouldn't completely leave technology out of the equation.

Posted 3 years ago #
warprints

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I know a couple female photographers who are pretty good, and they, too, are not really into specs. They know what their macro lenses and tele lenses can do, they just don't know the specs on the lenses.

Posted 3 years ago #
Niz

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Like jonnyapple I don't think gender has anything to do with who is a good photographer. As for the numbers, I would say it is pretty even right now, but the future is going to be ruled by the girls. Take a look at college for example, I'm a photo major and 80% of my department is female. Most of them are really good, while they don't have the tech stuff down as the guys in my department, a lot of them are far better then us.

Posted 3 years ago #
pabnj

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NikoDoby said:
Most of the male photogs are pricks, territorial and conceited. I know very few male photogs that are friendly and happy to help others with their photography.

Niko, I could not disagree with you more. Most of the photographers I have had the opportunity to speak with or meet are truly friendly, and helpful people. I live near NYC, and have met many of the NYC photographers, and most are quite nice people. Even some of the high earners (7 figs) are very approachable, and easy going. I can only think of a couple in that category who are pricks.

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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Ha Ha well I hope you put me in the "truly friendly, and helpful" pile and not with the pricks pabnj, lol. :^) I guess the photogs I "hang" with are a very competitive group. The friendlier guys are the older wiser ones who don't give a rat's ass and just enjoy photography. If you ask them about choosing between Nikon or canon. They'll just say, "try them both out in person and pick the won YOU like".

I do think women make better photographers than men though. Women put their subjects at easy a lot quicker than guys do. When people see a female photographer in the street taking pictures of buildings, people, or kids it's assumed she is a photographer. When a male photographer takes the same photos then he has suspicious intent!

In a studio female and male models will mingle with a girl photog before and after the shoot. They will talk about fashion, shoes, hair, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. The same models will remain guarded until they are comfortable with a male photog. Once they are comfortable then the photo shoot goes well. If not then the photographer has to work even harder to get his shots.

At weddings male photographers are expected to know what the heck they are doing while female shutterbugs seem to get away with things like redoing the shot or not knowing the full specs of their camera gear. If a guy does those things then people question how he got the job.

Posted 3 years ago #
davidchu

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I don't know of any female photographers (that actually spend a lot of their time taking photos) but all of the male photographers I've met are all nice. Not mean at all. But they are usually gear heads, like me.

(It also annoys the heck out of me when people don't know the specs on their camera. Especially the simple stuff like what camera they have, or the lens they are using. Focal length, aperture...)

Posted 3 years ago #
pabnj

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NikoDoby said:
Ha Ha well I hope you put me in the "truly friendly, and helpful" pile and not with the pricks pabnj, lol. :^)

I did put you in the friendly group right up until you edited one of my posts.......prick. :-)

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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D'OH! :^)

Posted 3 years ago #
Johndbr

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Hey guys, let's watch the language used here. I'm sure some of the people reading this forum don't appreciate it.

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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What word are you referring to John?

Definition 1:
"If someone calls a man a prick, they are indicating that they do not like him and that they think he is stupid."
or
Definition 2:
"a spiteful or contemptible man often having some authority"

PM me if you have a question

Posted 3 years ago #
Johndbr

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The word PRICK doesn't bother me, but I would think there just might be some very young people reading this forum and maybe their parents too. If this kind of thing is acceptable, that's fine with me. I apoligise for bringing it up.

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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It is stated in forum rule #4 that members must be 18+ years old to be here.

Posted 3 years ago #
TJGilbert21

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In light of this interesting topic, I thought of something highly amusing I stumbled upon while I was researching Nikon stuff:

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/technology/cousins/cousins11-e/

The first paragraph says it all.

I think the fact that I was even "researching Nikon stuff" is a testament to my absolute and undying devotion to the technical side of photography. Hell, I know more than any of the people working at Samy's about any Nikon equipment old and new. I spend several hours a week researching and studying up as if I've got some intense Nikon Photography final waiting for me at the end of the semester!

Being a photography student, I have known a very fair share of female photographers. And I've got to say — as much as some might say the ladies are less vicious, it is often not true at all . . . . An — er — affiliate of mine and I were constantly competing with our photography. I disliked her style and she hated mine. You see, she was Canon.

Granted, there are plenty of women photogs who fall under the category of "Gets Away with Anything" even if they don't know their stuff. In fact, about 95% of the girls in my photography class don't know anything about specs and whatnot.

But the men — whole different story. Guys like their equipment. I'll leave it at that.

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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LOL I forgot about that statement TJ. I do a lot of, um, research too.

"The Nikon EM (Photo) was developed as a small, cute, easy-to-use "SLR Camera for Women", appealing to a market whose needs were not being met sufficiently by conventional heavy, "uncute" SLR cameras on the market at the time."

You see even Nikon thinks (thought) women are different photographers. Now how many of you macho men are going to sell your cute D90 for an uncute D3S?

TJGilbert21 said:
An — er — affiliate of mine and I were constantly competing with our photography. I disliked her style and she hated mine. You see, she was Canon.

I don't know...it might have been true love and you just didn't realize it :^)

Posted 3 years ago #
Johndbr

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Hey Niko, you might need to read rule 2 and 4 again. A person under 18 can be a member with parents permission. And besides you don't have to be a member to read the posts on this forum anyway. I'm going to bed now, good night.

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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PM me if you want to continue the discussion john.

Posted 3 years ago #