This photo of a TV camera battery sitting on a roster next to a woman's pink purse struck me as humorous. It was at a girl's soccer game last night and I couldn't help but document the oddity of it. The owner of the purse was a reporter/photographer for Channel 11. You see, not long ago, a woman photojournalist working on the sidelines of a sporting event was a rarity. Covering the sporting world has traditionally been a man's job. For most football, basketball, hockey, baseball games, etc., I'm still pretty much the only woman shooter there.
I love shooting sports, being a former athlete myself, so I am often struck with the feeling that I'm lucky. I wonder if men feel the same way. Do they feel fortunate to be there, or entitled?
I'm noticing a gradual shift in the ratio of men and women sports shooters, however. At the OSU/UT game, there were actually about 2 or 3 of us - total. Men still dominate, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take women wanting and/or demanding to be there, on the field, with their male peers.
Let me share a true story that happened to me.
When I was an intern at the Warren Tribune, I worked Sundays. An LPGA was in town one weekend, and my boss actually took me off the schedule and sent the male intern in my place. The pathetic part - he hated sports. The full-time photogs told me to go shoot it anyway, so I did. I took my own film camera with a 300mm lens (which I hand carried because I didn't own a monopod at the time), and shot the entire day.
Know what happened? I went back to the Tribune, processed my film with the intern, and he admitted I had the better shot of the winner reacting to making her final putt. He graciously suggested I turn it in. So I did, and it ran huge on the front page.
My pay for that day = $0.00. My boss realizing women can shoot sports = priceless!
