Not 30, but am a woman and it’s definitely a male dominated field, but also depends on the your subject focus. I’ve met quite a few commerical product photogs who are women, but as for street photography, sports, concert or nature photography the majority I’ve met are men.

For street photography, depending on where you are located safety could be a legitimate concern. Same with concert photography. I’ve been followed, harassed, catcalled etc you name it while doing both, my male coworkers shooting 10 feet away didn’t have to deal with any of that.

When it comes to gigs I think most of us in the industry know it’s a networking/connections game as well. The intentional/unintentional bias from that can factor in while hiring. I’ve had promoters tell me they never thought “someone like you [me] could take such fire pics” and when asked what they meant they straight up have said because I’m a woman lol

A lot of times when I go into a shop the guys at the counter love to mansplain basic things like ISO, even AFTER I mention how long I’ve been doing this for.

Have met a lot of male photogs who also don’t treat me any differently. But I’ve definitely noticed it’s harder to be taken seriously. Can’t really speak to the age factor but I’ve absolutely seen a lot more older male photogs at gigs compared to a handful of older women (by old I mean looking 50+)

Think it’s just something men are more into generally, but don’t see why there would be any issues with women getting into it if the produce good work. Know there is one in my city with a studio and everything. As far as YouTubers I think this is also something just more men are into. Probably because of the technology aspect of the whole thing and men are more drawn to this. I would guess maybe more women are draw to the “story” and “people” aspect of photography. But yeah I’m general men and women are into different things and I guess photography is something more men are into.

I’m a woman street photographer in my late 30s. We’re out there, here’s a whole group of us, even. And another.

Though it sounds like you’re describing fashion photography, not street photography. The wiki for street photography is very informative, and I specifically like this definition of street photography by iNPUBLIC.

But when I go online to look for photography tutorials to expand my knowledge I realized that there aren’t many women in the field.

I will agree that there do seem to be fewer women cutting through the YouTube noise than men, especially in Street. I have a (new) podcast and have been running an educational photography community for the past 5 years. My last podcast episode was about Ethics in Street photography, so while not a tutorial, the discussion may be interesting to you, if you’re looking to talk more about Street.

If it’s fashion you’re interested in, Lindsay Adler, another woman in her 30s, does workshops and tutorials. She’s very focused on lighting and posing, which is crucial to fashion.

tl;dr: You are not alone! You just need to weed through a bit more to find us, but we exist.

I suspect there are more men than women practicing it, but that doesn’t mean it’s harder to succeed as a woman, just that fewer women tend to do it.

A good percentage of my favorite photographers are women, some of them going all the way back to the 1960s.

So you shouldn’t really care about the demographics, just go for it. It’s a very competetive field, it’s hard for everyone.

I think it just depends on what field of photography it is. A lot of the photographers that I used to engage with were actually men when I was into it more. For certain reasons I stopped for a while😔, and recently just got back into it and joined this group☺️. But most of the people in my photography social circle were men. There were some women, but more males. I used to do a lot of portrait modeling on the other side of the lens as well as artistic modeling and I would say it was half and half. If I would do a “boudoir” type shoot It was mostly male but the females that I did work with from time to time were phenomenal and maybe as a female myself, it’s because I felt a lot more comfortable in that environment. And I noticed a lot more women popping up in that field. All I can say is I’m not really super familiar with street photography myself, (although I do follow some accounts that are street photographers they are all men) I have noticed that a lot of the men that I still talk to today that are photographers, even their friends that are photographers are men…and a few women sprinkled in there. So I guess it just depends on the type of photography maybe? I know in Australia there are loads of phenomenal male photographers and female photographers and it seems to balance out a lot whereas here in the US I seem to encounter more male photographers but it could be just coincidental, like when I go online for tutorials it usually is a male doing the tutorial. But I never really search out specifically for a woman or a man. I just look for the tutorial itself. I have definitely come across women tutorials, but not as many as I have for men. Like several people on this thread mentioned, they are definitely out there, and they are phenomenal! But in my experience, most accounts or people I meet that are in the business are male. Again, not that I haven’t met any females, it just seems to be more male-dominated in my opinion.

I’m a guy, first of all… and I don’t have access to any statistics or anything. In the world of online tutorials… I think you’re right. For whatever reason there do seem to be a lot more men doing that type of stuff. But when it comes to actual photography, there are a lot of excellent women photographers out there, and I think that’s been true for a long time.

It’s absolutely possible to be a successful photographer as an older woman. But it’s an uphill battle for anyone who is just getting started, regardless of gender.