Is this a male dominated hobby?

Ha! YEsterday when diving with a fellow male wetpixelite (no names reveled) I was taking my time in carefully getting nto the water with my camera gear, whereupon my friend hoited "C'mon, Don't act like a Girl!". We'll I did remind him that actually, I AM A GIRL. In our little group of happy buddies we had 3 Girls with camera, one guy with camera and one guy without camera (but I suspect he has gills). In general, I think we have more female photographers on our little islands. I first thought to write that maybe the guys are more technically minded, but really when I think of it, that's not true either, because the only two professional geeks around were me and my fellow girlfriend..., so with the risk of opening another can of chum, if we had to generalize, I think it might come down to this: if you are male of female don't matter that much, but there seems to be a division between those who love uw photography because they love to capture the beauty of nature and those who more enjoy talking about and fiddling with gear. Of course there are various hybrids and mutations as well, but I think most of us would lean one way or the other. I personally probably lean towards the former, or at least I hope so... because after all, no matter how great your gear is, if you cannot see, then you cannot capture. P.I.C. The Finnish Nature Photograph of the Year 2004 was taken with a P&S camera. This is a country where nature photography is almost like a national sport...

I just got back from a winter trip the the Flower Gardens. This time of year it is rough and cold in the Gulf. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the group on the boat was roughly 50/50 men and women!

Of all the cameras on the table, it was also a pretty even split. Again, I was astounded and pleasantly surprised. Most people were using compact cameras in OEM housings, and some with external strobes. Digital cameras outweighed film by about 2 to 1.

Cheers

James

But you definately dont see any single women on dive trips. You do see a lot of couples though, although more often than not only 1 of the 2 is really serious, the other sortof tags along, usually the woman.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

turtlehero is a single woman who dives, does uw photography and posts here.  There's more than one in my immediate group.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And through out the year there are times when you would see minimal amounts of female divers on the boats, but there are times when we have been inundated by diver chicks, which may sound fun, but when you're working, and you are outnumbered by women on vacation you are the subject of much hilarity, which can have detremental effects on the afore mentioned male ego in the dive world. Maybe thats why there is so much machismo, it's a defense mechanism!

I'm a female diver/photographer, and my husband got certified because 1. I had been diving for several years when we met and 2. he was jealous at the thought of all the male dive buddies I could have. Of course all that quickly dissapated on his first cold water dive. Now - if it is not clear, blue and warm, he won't dive it, and he has no desire to hold a camera.

As for me, if it's wet, I'll dive in it and get a shot of something - and I take dive trips without him all the time. He travels quite a bit on business, and I go on dive trips with friends. (A girl has to have something to do with her time, right? )

I'd say that most of the people I dive with regularly are women, and we're pretty hard core at that. Some are cavers, some are headed that way, and the rest are just willing to dive when it's cold and mucky, (or hot and mucky) to help each other out when we need buddies. These gals are always level headed and when a problem arises (and there have been some) we can count on each other to fix the situation or get to the surface safely!

We all teach together as well. We are all either Instructors or Divemasters, and we just gel. There is never any machismo or competition between us, and it just works.

Our husbands/boyfriends tag along occasionally, but for the most part, they are "fair weather divers" and don't see the same joy of breathing underwater like we do....

I do have a precious few awesome dive buddies who are male - and I enjoy diving with them. (They're mostly photographers too - a major plus) But for the most part my diving "community" is female.

C

I agree with Marjo, there is a great proportion (including me) of guys who are seduced by the gadgeteria & technologia associated with diving/photography, same with cars, women usually are not as impressed by the nuts and bolts holding the thing together, they concentrate more with the pupose of the thing. makes me wish my feminine side was more develloped <_< .

I spend way to much time checking for the perfectly balanced chromium plated dual action stainless steel spring molebdinium carabiner to hold my polycarbonated streamlined triple barreled power boosted long range safety whistle.

This "male ego in the dive world" being referred to is simply a function of the age and type of divers in the group and has nothing to do with diving per se. Now that I take relatively long and pricey trips that draw a somewhat older crowd I rarely experience it, but when I dove a lot locally I experienced it all the time. It's not the diving, it's maturity. Sexism contributes nothing positive to diving or photography. Most of the photographers in my group are women.

Well, Well, Well,

Doe, it really matter who you dive with as long you both have the

same reasons to get wet & you both get out safely & manage to

get some shots. Or am I missing something here, if you are passionate

about diving you would dive with anyone, I know I would, male, female,

martian. This sounds as bad as Im a padi diver & I don,t dive with any

other diving organisation because their training is not as good as mine.

You are not on this planet that long enjoy it & live it to the full I know I

do.

HAVE SAFE GREAT DIVES & TAKE GREAT PICS & ENJOY WHOEVER YOU

ARE WITH.

OK Andy, did you grow up in the 70's? I love this line:

"ENJOY WHOEVER YOU ARE WITH."

Sounds good to me!

Cheers

James

perfectly balanced chromium plated dual action stainless steel spring molebdinium carabiner to hold my polycarbonated streamlined triple barreled power boosted long range safety whistle.

Please tell me where I can purchase said carabiner and whistle. It sounds like something I really need.

Well, I'm a single female photographer, and the last three liveaboards I went on had three types of passengers:

a) married couples

B) married men with sons or buddies

c) single women

Nary a single man amongst the passengers, save the crew. <_<

Back here in BC, it's about 60%- 40% men to women for divers. Since the advent of digital, I noticed a much larger number of men taking up photography here.

There was a point a few years ago that 45% of all new divers were women between 35 and 45. I do think more men stick with it, and therefore end up interested in taking photos.

Cheers,

Marli

I am a woman diver and uw photographer. I started uw photography with a "water proof" throw-away camera about 8 years ago. They implode around 25' so I could only use them when free diving so eventually I bought a "real" uw camera. I dove with men and women and was single for a long time.

I met my S.O. at an uw photo club and we have been diving and shooting together for 5 years now. It does make your hobby much more fun when you can share it with someone special.

Dive and do your photography with friends or loved ones, male and female. It doesn't matter. And if you really want to find someone to share your hobby, try joining a club. ;-)

Kathy

Jean, that's just too funny!!! But such is life, some gadgets just have that attraction factor and we cannot live without them. While some girls drop $800 on a pair of shoes in a heartbeat, some of us get arrythmia and lightheadedness from the thought of holding a new lens

I've met a few single women on liveaboard trips. See lots of woman on day boats. my digiphotoseminar at sea rovers was around 25% female.

but, yeah. on the road, mostly: 40s, male, white.

single,

eric

Thanks James,

In 1970 I was just about five years old, so you could say that I

did just about. Although I don,t remember much about it,what

I was tring to get across was that it doen,t matter who you dive

with as long as you both enjoy the experiance & get out safely.

Iv,e only been diving for about four & a half years & I have had

good & bad dives with both sexes. Just enjoy

CHEERS ANDY

My girlfriend is very much into UW photography, but it is proobably because she is humouring me. I still do most of the gear preparation and cleaning, but she takes some brilliant photos.

Hey Anthp, I gave up on buying the carabiner, I'll try to find an aerospace machinist to manufacture it for me, the whistle mmmm.... maybe I will try to make it from carbon fiber with an honeycomb core to save weight

Marjo, 800.00 $ for shoes.... you see guy's would buy them if you told them they are fuel carburated, air suspension with an auto ego inflator, gee I know I would! but leather shoes, I would divorce my wife

Hey Andy I grew up in the 70's was a teenager then, you see I don't remember much either, what a strange long trip it was Love the one your with, C,S,N & Y

Couldn´t be bothered reading all the messages in this thread, but I'll add to it anyway. ;-)

Most of the divers I know are men. In the smaller group of more fanatic divers, women are much more common. If the fanaticism is directed towards "diving" and away from "equipment" they are all women.

All the recent live aboards I've been on have had two distinct groups of divers: Single men and couples (with few exceptions). The single men are often more experienced divers than the couples are, but in between dives I'm kind of happy those couples are there.

A, perhaps, surprisingly large percentage of dive masters I've encountered have been women. Generally I've been very happy with them, and that's because they've done a good job. Not because they looked good, or ran around in bikinis. The, no comparison, best dive master I've ever had was a woman. The few dive masters I have been genuinly unhappy with have all been (macho) male.

/Anders

http://www.divegirl.com/

the ultimate resource to find out where all the girly's will be diving this year !!

hmm there should be a website dedicated for dive girls, with gallery pages and competitions with prizes for free photo shoots with me in Cayman.

I think I have a winner here boys.

Like Craig, I'm starting to feel sickened by the content in this thread (from the overtly sexist parts, I mean).

I am the only girl my parents had after having 3 boys. My Dad and brothers took me to their local dive instructor when I was eleven and said enough snorkelling time for diving. I never looked back. I got my first job diving in our local aquarium cleaning the inside of the ocean/shark tank and doing the live feeds for the tourist I was 15 when I started this job, they couldn't find anyone else male or female to dive in 9degree celcius water in winter for 3 hours cleaning. I couldn't afford a drysuit so I did it in a 5mm and I loved it. I have since logged around 1700 dives. I worked in Cairns at one of the leading underwater camera specialist wholesalers, my boss preferred having me as a woman doing the sales as I wasn't so gung ho, cocky and I landed a lot more sales, I built great relationships for the company.

I think I don't post as much as some of the guys because if I have a question I seek out the most knowledgable person I know on the subject here in Australia or overseas call or email directly and get their help if they have the time.

I worked in the Solomons in 1995 for 15months as a Divemaster/Instructor and fill in hostess on three of the liveaboards there and the clients I had I would like to think had an enjoyable time with me without the need for strapping cocky male divemaster.

I love my diving, love my photography just as much, i love the fact that my son is just three and snorkells like a demon.