A recent question was posed on the Buffalo Area Models and Photographers group on Facebook. User Spence ThaKid asked, "...why do some photographers only work with females? What's the reasoning behind this, men?"

The tone of the question, by my interpretation, would suggest that Spence is implying there is a sexist, or gender based reason hidden in the motives of photographers. Most photographers are male, and females tend to dominate the modeling industry in this area. The responses he received varied from long explanations of demographics (there's more female models than male to work with), to a short, and sweet response that Buffalo simply isn't a major hub for fashion.

From my own perspective, when it comes to creative projects I am approached by far more females than males. I've enjoyed working with male models when the opportunity arises, but in ten years time, for creative projects, I can honestly say the female to male ratio of those who solicit my services has to be in the 25:1 range. That doesn't leave me many options for choosing the gender of my subjects, and in the past 4 or 5 years, I haven't initiated many of my own creative shoots except with Cortney, for obvious (I hope) reasons.

But that's not just Buffalo. Modeling is dominated by females in almost every market I've explored, or researched. In the media, women are far more prevalent in fashion, runway, and commercial modeling, and more marketing is geared toward influencing them. Marketing data shows consistently that both men, and women are influenced by images of attractive women, than attractive men. 

Yes, I'm sure in the cases of some photographers, there might be a hidden (or not so hidden....) motivation behind choosing exclusively female subjects, but for the most part, most of the photographers that I know, and have worked directly with, it is more due to who is available, who is willing, and who is enthusiastic about taking on creative, or commercial projects.

So, Mr. Spence ThaKid, if you have a creative concept that you would like to propose, I'm all ears. If I have a project that requires a male model, and you fit the required looks, answer the call. In the meantime, I'm going to keep working on creative, and commercial projects with the people who solicit me to do so, because I'm actually quite busy with those opportunities, and haven't had time for much else.

Selective Hearing?

Sitting in an office among dozens of modern day people corrals knows as "cubicles" leaves little room to avoid hearing the conversations around you. For example, the women sitting over the wall from me tends to speak rather loudly, unless she is trying to have a personal conversation. I tune her out, usually, until something she says catches my ear, which usually goes something like...

"Murmur...murmur...murmur...FINGER IN THE BUTT AND murmur...murmur...murmur...murmur..."

I swear it happens on purpose, but the conversations I hear around me every day often baffle me. I feel like if I said the same, I'd be facing angry HR managers, yet others seem to carry on this way, and nothing ever happens. As an example, right now people are talking about the horrible things that happen in their communities. A man just said, "Oh, I've seen a murder. I watched someone get executed," with a hint of, "you should be impressed," and a subtle laugh. The "my experiences are worse than your experiences" contest continued with conversations of murder, and improprieties at local drug houses, and crazy grandfathers shooting at would-be muggers. In the middle of the office, loud enough for me to hear 3 or 4 rows of cubicles away.

Remind me again that I once got written up for having a postcard that a friend sent me with an image of a woman in a bathing suit on my desk, and once had a "talking to" by a manager because I took off my shoes under my desk.

I'm glad I don't offend that easily... or maybe everyone around me should be glad that I don't offend that easily.

Slow Me Down

The last few weeks have been a bit rougher than normal. Time is short, and there are many obligations on my plate. I'm going to try to not complain, because sometimes life gets like this.

Here's a reminder to myself to not lose sight of what is important. Try to have patience with everyone, and all things. In time, things will come to fruition, or I'll be dead. Either way is a-ok.

Getting to the gym has been put off, seemingly indefinitely at this point. I don't think I've been in the gym for at least three weeks, maybe four. I was hoping for Saturday this week but that's looking like it isn't going to happen either, especially with the current weather. At least I still have a lot of boxes, and furniture to lift, and move around. The weather keeps slowing things down. Taking hours out of a day to clear snow, or deal with traffic tends to keep things out of balance. Time that can be better spent is wasted on delays, or work that is a temporary solution to a temporary problem, but one that has to be done.

Monday was a rough day, and contained a lot of those moments where I felt I was falling behind due to things that are not in my control. A lot of built up frustrations took over my emotions by the end of the day; I was out of patience, and to the point of breaking. Days like that, I need something to redirect my emotions, and reverse that trend. As I have grown used to though, what I wanted, and what I needed wasn't there. Knowing it wasn't there, and it can't ever be counted on adds to the frustration, and further frays my emotional edges. It is difficult to act out of love, and understanding when feeling that way. It's difficult to remain patient, for all things, when feeling that way. I feel like I am in a constant state of waiting; the expectation upon me from all directions for endless patience, and understanding, in all areas of life, but rarely is the same afforded to me.

It is challenging, but something I learned a long time ago, generally I'm on my own in this life, so whatever it is that I face, I have to solve it for myself.

Who else feels this way? How do you deal with those feelings? What coping mechanisms have you designed, or learned, to help you through those rough patches?

Wait On The Weight

Haven't actually seen my scale in a few days, but at my last weigh-in, I was still hoovering in the 219 range. Seems my body kind of likes that as a standing point. It would be great to get to the mark I want to get to, but I'm not sure that is even possible at this point... or if it really even matters.