UKC

Just been looking at the photo gallerys and suddenly noticed, there are no women in the top 50 gallerys. Also nearly all the gallerys are by men. I know climbing is mostly a male dominated passtime but I have seen plenty of ladies at the crags these days, so why are so few of them not using camaras.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Women don't do gadgets, especially complicated ones.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

A subject discussed at length on many photography forums.

Again its a male dominated past time but not exclusively male.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Some of those shutter buttons take a lot of strength to press

In reply to Russell Lovett:

I think that, as a huge generality, men and women are wired differently when it comes to enjoying their free time. When on holiday with Miss Lemming I have to bribe her to take photos. I don't think its because she forgets, but more about being in the moment rather than trying to capture it with a gadget. This is a shame really, as she takes better images/compositions than me.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Get ready....

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Given that there seems to be no kind of barrier; real or imagined, to women taking up amateur photography; the only answer I can think of is-

Because they don't want to.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

There's at least one keen and talented female photographer who often posts on here, though she hasn't put much in the way of pics on here.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Cameras aren't pretty enough.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

As you say, there are more male users of this site.

I don't think looking at the UKC galleries is a reliable barometer of how many women out there are taking photographs - for instance, I teach on a photography degree course and, of the year group I was teaching on Friday, I'd say the split is 65/35% weighted towards women.

As a personal observation, I've taken a fair few photographs over the years, but crag photography holds little interest for me.

Oh, and some of the posters on this thread probably think they're hilarious but it's all a little painful, chaps.

In reply to Tall Clare:

I'd be interested to see if the split were the same when it came to publicly sharing their work e.g. on flickr.

When I was running my university's photographic society, at least half of the members were female. And the vast majority of those who wanted to learn (either "basic photography" or "darkroom b&w processing and printing") were female. This suggested to me that the blokes didn't want formal teaching and/or thought they knew it all. Yet when it came to putting together exhibitions, most of the entries were from the male members (as it were...), even though I knew the female students were turning out exhibition-quality prints.

So I wonder whether a taught course is a reliable barometer of the gender split in photography? (I am not for a moment comparing a uni society to a degree course, btw!)

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I'm sure there probably *are* more men out there taking photographs, or at least wafting round with expensive cameras and talking a good game (check *me* out - I can do lame stereotyping too!).

I'm sure that observation of that particular year group on that course isn't a great barometer, any more than the UKC forums are - I seem to recall Redeye did some research into this a while back, but rummaging for it will have to wait until another day as I need to go to bed now.

In reply to Tall Clare:

I can't see any stereotyping, lame or otherwise in my post.

In reply to Blue Straggler



Surely you noticed them in several of the other posts though?

I've taken about 25-30,000 pics in the thirty or so years I've been doing outdoorsy stuff. But I don't consider myself a photographer; I'm just someone who uses a camera to record what I see. I take pictures purely for my own enjoyment and to make nice big prints to go on my walls. I often go long periods without even picking up my cameras as sometimes they feel like just another piece of technology that gets in the way of enjoying the moment.

I like to show my photos to friends and family, but in person rather than on the internet. I also spend hours scrolling randomly through my picture files which always results in a few nice surprises, reminding me about something I'd long forgotten.

I did have a gallery on here for a while but it all felt a bit competitive which is not really what taking pictures is about for me personally. I don't want the response to my photos to be "nice photo", or "what camera do you use?", or "do you shoot RAW?". I want the viewer to tell me about an experience they had in the same location or in similar conditions. I want the picture to be an opening for a more personal, emotional discussion. That doesn't really happen on the internet which is why I no longer post pictures here or anywhere else.

So that's why I'm invisible as a 'photographer'. I see plenty of other women carrying and using cameras when I'm out, but I don't know what their motivation is or why their pictures don't find their way onto the internet.

ps, my cameras are very 'gadgety' : Nikon D7000 and Canon G12. I even know what most of the buttons do because I've read the manual!

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Every woman I've ever kown has been very keen to take photographs, much more so than I do (I often forget I've got my camera with me).

However, one thing I have noticed, is that the subject can often be much more biased towards people than landscapes (i.e. group shot of friends, portraits, people doing things) where as a lot of the subjects I'm interested in (and a lot of photos on this site are of) landscapes, with people only really there accidentally.

In reply to Tall Clare:

It's an interesting observation. I'm sure we can all provide anecdotal evidence of exceptional female photographers ( I know several, though not in landscape photography ). Perhaps in general they are less inclined to present their photos for 'judgement' on the UKC forums.


Agreed.

In reply to planetmarshall:



One of the best polar photographers around: http://www.daisygilardini.com/awards/#/0
One of the busiest adventure photographers around: Krystle Wright - http://www.wrightfoto.com.au/Artist.asp?ArtistID=22535&Akey=PQGJP8B4

In reply to andreadawn:

Yes, I'd tend to agree - I don't feel any need to submit photographs to UKC - in fact, until this thread, I'd no idea how big the gallery function had become.

Of course, it's rare I have room to fit a decent camera in by the time I've packed my makeup bag a and hair dryer

More seriously, photography does demand a bit of freedom to stick around at antisocial hours until (eg) the light's right, and I've found it very frustrating that it's hard to get decent photos with a couple of young kids in tow - which until last year, was basically all the time I wasn't at work.

In reply to Russell Lovett:
The tedious 'punishment voting' on the gallery is a very male thing. It's much nicer to be nice.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

I've just started a 3 year degree studying photography and out of the 40 or so of us I'd say the class is split 55/45 in the direction of women to men


Max

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Men have the need to show everyone what they can do. Women know how good they are.

(just keeping in with the tone of the thread)

In reply to Russell Lovett:

I work in photography and I can assure you that the lack of women representatives in the ukc galleries is more likely to be down to underrepresentation on internet message-boards and forums as a format in general. There is much less of a gender bias in the industry itself.