So are girl photographers just dumb about the whole technical aspect of photography? That was meant to be an inflammatory statement (my brothers are famous for them). But I really got thinking about this after reading David Hobby’s blog post about the gender gap of his readership on the incredibly popular Strobist (a blog dedicated to providing information on how to use off camera flash) and the attendance to his flash workshops (6% vs. 75%).  What was more intesting to me than the article itself were the 200+ responses on his blog including one woman who wrote that she never noticed there was a gender gap…and I thought, is she autistic?

If we don’t want to get fired from our positions at a Harvard, maybe, we’d say there is no difference in the way men and women approach, learn, and do photography.

 After reading this I’ve been ruminating about this….it would be politically correct to say…no, but it is honest to say….yep…generally women are dumber about the technical aspects of photography than men. You can quote me on that.  As a whole women may not be as technically savvy as men with camera technical issues, but they certainly don’t let it hold them back.

I can’t speak for my gender because I, more than most people, am technically developmentally delayed with technical stuff. Some of this is by choice; I don’t text or know how to use a DVD player (I don’t watch DVD’s) and some of it simply due to the fact that I am a little slow in processing written technical information. As a rule, I never shoot in anything other than manual on my camera and for my flash, only because by shooting in these modes, I always know what I’m going to get.

Show me and I’ll be just fine. I did this shot and a whole bunch of others after watching commercial photographer Michael Schoenfeld  Michael Schoenfeld do a test shoot. I thought, hmmm, “I can do that.”

For this shot, I didn’t want just another pretty picture. I want to capture the fragility and uncertainty of childhood.  I used an off camera Canon Speedlite flash a 60′ umbrella that my inebriated friend had stepped on, and a reflector that the neighborhood kids had used as a parachute, in  my small dining area. I have no backdrop so the set up is just about as low tech as you can get when it comes to off camera flash, but I was thrilled with the results. Flash set 1/4 +.03 about three and half feet to the left of my subject. A reflector placed on the table where she was sitting to bounce the light up. Camera settings ISO 200, 125 ss, f 4.0 . I processed this relying heavily on my blue filter so that the skin would have a more gritty heavy feel.

So the main point of this post is, “Don’t your fear or lack of technical knowledge hold you back, girls or not.”

What are your thoughts?

Do women photograph differently than men?