I saw the results of a Photo Marketing Association survey recently which said that 51% of all DSLR users are female.
It’s not an overwhelming majority – but it got me wondering – are DPS readers mainly male or female?
This week’s survey/reader question asks that simple question.
Interested to see the results on this one.
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33 Responses to “Are You Male or Female?” - Add Yours
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:30 am
3rd voter, 1st male. Where is everyone? I guess everyone had a banging halloween party going on last night… ;)
Of course, I’m just a picture-taker. My lady is the photographer. And my (female) best friend has an MFA in photography. Neither of them read DPS, though.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:10 am
C’mon, Girls! We need to get our number up! =)
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:35 am
Who Cares!?!?! Go out and take some pictures.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:36 am
I’m male, and not a photographer… I just like to see photos, tips, that’s why I subscribed to DPS. My father though, is/has been photographer.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:04 am
51% of DSLR users who answer surveys are female … does this mean a comment on DSLR users or who answers surveys????
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:52 am
Wow, where in the world you are Terry? The date on your comment is November 2nd, mines is November 1st right now. I’ll see what date this comment has.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:53 am
Ok, I’m living in tomorrowland too.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:16 am
female :)
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:20 am
You must be psychic!
Interesting that you brought this one up today. Just yesterday, I was noticing how the majority of posts on this site seem to be by men, and I was wondering why my gender seemed so lightly represented. I know it’s not ’cause we women are shyer than men, in general.
Maybe now, I’ll get my answer….
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:21 am
Now I’m curious about location, too. It’s 11:20am on the 1st here in Los Angeles. I thought this site was from the UK…. maybe it’s Australia?
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:28 am
Well, I’m not a men, I am in to photography and the date is here here 1 November. You seem all to live somewhere in tomorrowland.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:23 am
Males for the win :)
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:24 am
I think there are an equal number of male/female photographers, but I think guys tend to be the ones that get really into equipment and do research about photography online. I don’t think women do that as much as men.
Good for women though… if I spend as much time shooting as I do reading about photography/drooling over gear, I’m sure I would be improving my skills, and taking more quality memorable photos(isn’t that the point?)!
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:36 am
Luis – this site runs on Aussie time (where I, the editor) am based. We are well ahead of the rest of the world! :-)
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:21 am
This survey reflects gender behavior about many factors: people who read about photography, people who read blogs, people who take surveys, etc.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:40 am
Let me check—yep, a man
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
Male, no DSLR – yet. Prosumer.
Males tend to be more likely to read blogs and surf the net in general, I believe
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
well, I have been a long time follower of this site, but lately, the site’s quality has dropped, I find myself less and less interested in the latest articles, that have decreased in quantity and value!
I hope this is just a temporary situation because I was really learning a lot from this blog, but now, I find myself in other sites looking for good camera advice
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Thanks for the feedback Mike – perhaps you could help us keep the standards up to the standards that you wish them to be at by letting us know how we could improve?
While knowing that you find that our articles have decreased in quantity and value is helpful – it actually doesn’t help us to improve. Perhaps you could share what quantity you’d like (actually the post frequency has always been once per weekday and once on the weekend for over a year now) and what you’d like to see us cover that is more valuable.
While this post is obviously not creating a lot of ‘value’ to many – it’s purpose is to generate some discussion. However this week we’ve attempted to provide more useful posts to readers including a book review, a tip on cropping and an article on how to teach kids about photography.
What sort of articles would you like more of?
Not having a go – just interested to get some more constructive critique on what you want instead of general feedback that just tells us that you’re not satisfied.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
@mike
If you look into the archive i believe there are tons of articles you haven’t read. I have all the articles bookmarked but i still haven’t finish reading all of them. I don’t know if you’ve already done that but please do before you say the site has decreased in value.
Also, what may be something of less value to you may be of more value to others and i believe this site wasn’t catered to just one person. So there will be times when some will like it and some will not. But i don’t think that decreases the value of the articles in the site.
Try looking at it at another angle and maybe you’ll see what i mean =)
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I agree with Ruby….I’ll bet more females fill out surveys.
I enjoy the basic articles this site has presented…photography for kids, basic composition, techniques. I get a little depressed at the camera reviews as I just use a Nikon Coolpix S4. I love the 10X optical zoom and the way the lens tilts, but I guess it’s a pretty basic camera in light of the ones being analyzed here. My husband has a pretty basic camera also, a Kodak EasyShare P850. I love his 12X optical zoom.
In light of the survey showing most people at this site have newer, more complicated cameras than we do, my need for basic, simple articles might not be feasible to heed.
Nonetheless, I do hope you’ll continue to offer them from time to time.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:25 pm
“Read more posts like ‘Are You Male or Female?’
How to Photograph Birds”
Whoops? Or pun intended?
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:45 pm
I do a photography course at an arts university in Surrey (UK) and theres 75 of us in the first year course (quite a big class!) I was shocked to see on the first day that there was only around 18 men in the whole class! I was expecting more, but it actually works out ok. Maybe more girls see it as a profession, as opposed to a hobby. That said, our lecturers are mostly men (there are a few women) and all of our lecturers are professional working and exhibiting photographers. Does that mean that more menmake it into the industry?
Hannah (a female, of course :D)
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 am
Of course, the result of this survey could just indicate the proportions of men and women that are reading this, as opposed to actual camera users!
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:28 am
@timolino:
I agree! :)
btw, I did vote as well, what the heck, it was just 2 clicks! ;)
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I think Ruby hit the nail on the head, and Mark had a good follow-up. Putting the two thoughts together, this DPS poll assumes the reader is a photographer, but will only take a pulse of those that actually answer the survey.
| Ruby Says:
} November 2nd, 2007 at 3:04 am
|
| 51% of DSLR users who answer surveys are female
| MarkP Says:
| November 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 am
|
| Of course, the result of this survey could just indicate
| the proportions of men and women that are reading this,
| as opposed to actual camera users!
November 4th, 2007 at 2:08 am
Male.
From what I’ve seen, men and women tend to get interested in serious photography in fairly equal numbers. However, one thing I’ve noticed is that while women often get interested in and become good at many forms of purely artistic photography, men (who may also do art stuff, like I do) are much more likely to do photojournalism than the ladies. Maybe guys get more into carrying tons of gear (two-plus cameras with big lenses and external flash modules and battery packs, etc) and rushing around pretending to be important, or maybe women are turned off by the more aggressive approach it requires.
November 4th, 2007 at 4:43 am
I’m a woman, serious amateur photographer looking to become a great freelance photographer. :-)
November 5th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I’m female, semi-professional photographer. So is my husband – the semi-professional part, not the female part. ;) We keep a blog where we both geek out on gear, etc. I think females are just as into gear as men, but then again, maybe that’s just me.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:34 am
well seems much more guys come here :)
November 1st, 2008 at 6:31 am
As I write this the ladies sit at about 30%. But perhaps internet forum users with DSLRs are another demographic again :)
January 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
A less photographically-challenged male, after reading the entire contents of this site over the past year.
Hey, if I’m going to sit in front of this computer, I might as well learn something useful.
February 6th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Thanks for the interesting post.
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