Who Are You People, Again?
After over 2,000 responses (thank you!) the results from the first question are in:
Readership is ~89% male, 11% female. Sigh.
Today's question is about your relationship to your photography. Is is all about love or money?
Thanks again for your help. (You will need to have Google Plus activated to participate.)
Summer Survey Question #2: Love or Money?
Readership is ~89% male, 11% female. Sigh.
Today's question is about your relationship to your photography. Is is all about love or money?
Thanks again for your help. (You will need to have Google Plus activated to participate.)
Summer Survey Question #2: Love or Money?
__________
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Posted at 7:55 AM.
13 Comments:
Sorry, didn't participate in the gender poll until just now because,...well,...I'm a mama with 4 kids at home for the summer and, quite frankly, haven't had 15 minutes to myself long enough to actually READ any blogs (have just been browsing). But count me in with the ladies and with those gals that got to go to FlashBus! I'm also one of those girls who is still completely befuddled about flash and maybe one day I will have time to learn.
I wanted to do the survey, but, like the previous commenter, I did not have time (or desire) to sign up for google+. So, you could count me with the ladies if you're still running numbers.
Money! For me, photography is a job (20+ years), not an expensive hobby. YMMV.
BTW I prefer hiring women, they are not gear obsessed, just obsessed with getting the job done correctly.
A couple of variables could skew your gender response. I'm not keen to open myself to Google+, so the first step in voting causes me to quit. I'm female, find your blog fascinating, and love photography. Selling a photo, while nice, doesn't drive my love.
Perhaps use a different type of questionnaire to see if your results change. Perhaps women reveal less than Google+ wants to know?
Cheers from Alaska
Love Google+ and love Strobist. I'm one of the ladies following your blog for 5 plus years now. Also a flash bus attendee. Strobist has had huge impact on my photography. Not just in lighting skills but in many other ways as well.
Given that not everyone has a Google+ account, you might get better results if you created a one page survey at using a free account at www.surveymonkey.com
I found Strobist years ago while researching which dSLR camera to buy. Then I joined in the local Austin Strobist group activities which were fantastic. There were some, but few females in the group (20%? 10%?).
In the Austin strobist group, the social and knowledge sharing aspects of our meet ups were so appealing to me. However, because of the high number of men organizing and participating, the chosen photographic subjects in the meetups were not so appealing to me as a female.
Later, I learned about Zack Arias, that he wasn't evil (*just* one light??), and attended a workshop he held in Austin. Despite knowing quite a few OCF photographers from the Austin Strobist group, I did not know anyone at that workshop. There were probably about an equal amount of women and men attending. I was the only non-professional. In the years since the workshop, it has seemed that the few attendees (all who happen to be women) I've somewhat followed don't seem to use OCF (or at least very often) in their work. I think imagine many of the women took the course to learn OCF, realized it wasn't their thing, and went on with their career. I remember hearing (reading?) Zack mention once that despite your previous survey, he saw a much higher proportion of women interested in OCF in his workshops.
(Yes this is a huge huge huge generalization, but...) My theory is that women tend to like workshops for learning and the social benefits. But the learning style preferred by men tends to be to do the research themselves (such as reading strobist) rather than taking workshops. Therefore, that (IMHO) is why Zack sees a more equal proportion of men and women in his workshops, while the strobist site sees a very high percentage of men.
There are a lot of aspects of this topic which could be discussed... hey maybe I should hit up the strobist flickr group and see what is being discussed. I do find it fascinating.
I think female photographers (both hobbyists and professional) are missing out when they exclude themselves from the world of off camera lighting. Props to the ladies who learn about it, whether through reading, DVDs or workshops (and even/especially if it's not their thing and decide not to use it in their photography).
PS +1 on FlashBus!
I don't have a G+ account (and don't want one, sigh ;)) any other pool options?
The photo group I attend seems to be about 30-40% female. It's run by a husband-and-wife team.
And I'm not making any money from shooting. I've always said that I'll be happy if my photography pays for my photography; if it lets me replace or repair my gear as needed, I'll be content.
I have to complain about the absence of "making a living and also love it". It's not love OR money, it's both!
My photography is for the love of the process and results. It almost pays for itself now and has cost me under $100 a year on average. I work at a job that pays OK and has health insurance, I take a photography job when it is something I want to do anyway, and I don't have any of the stress of being responsible for sales, marketing, payroll, or anything else that comes with running your own business. I am happy to be an amature photographer and as an amature I just need to please myself. I would hate to turn photography into a job.
I do it for love. I just love doing photography. I look at shooting stuff for money something to help offset the cost of this crazy passion.
love, love and little bit money :)
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