Apr 15, 2008

ManBooking, ManScrapping, PhotoBooking? What do ya' call it?

Saturday night our church had an activity that was a "talent and hobby" showcase. People who wanted to share set up a table showcasing their talent or hobby. We had a diverse range of stuff from handicrafts to short-wave radios.

Three tables had photo books. One was mine, but the other two tables had photo books made by MEN! In fact, I'm finding that it's very common for a man to make photo books. Photography has always been a hobby that's been acceptable for a woman OR a man. In fact, when my husband gets hold of the camera, I can count on no less than 1000 shots of any event (okay - that's a bit of an exaggeration - but he takes FAR MORE than I would). Men are as interested in showcasing their photographic talents as much as women are. But how many would print out their photos and scrap them? Not many. Women go about their memory preservation using crafts but men go about it using the black backgrounds of a photo book. Yet, when you break it down, aren't they BOTH doing the same thing?

Still, I accused both of these men of being SCRAPBOOKERS and it caused both to break out into a sweat (and their wives to chuckle).

The million dollar question is.... how do we capture ManScrapping (a term my husband said was creepy - LOL) for the good of the industry?? Hmmmm.... food for thought. Maybe Cabelas would like to set up a scrapbook section next to their shooting gallery. We could start with the Utah store and go from there.

3 comments:

Jim Peless said...

REAL men don't do scrap books...but they will make a book of their skills and art. The difference is, when a women does this, she has to add a ton of other items to the pages...cut outs of other items, recipes,tales their hairdresser told them last week - you get the idea. Men JUST have their photos in the book - with maybe a quote. No recipes. ;-)

Sandra @ The Memory Workshop said...

Comparing men's scrapooks to women's scrapbooks would be like comparing their haircuts. Men take less time and fewer products/services, but they still need it cropped! (pun intended)

Men might spend less time "grooming" but overall they probably get more done. they still need tools, adhesives, paper, albums, photo finishing.

Anonymous said...

If Cabela's had scrapbook products, my husband would buy them and give them to me as a "gift". He would be more than happy for me to Re-gift it back to him!

He would not be caught "making" a scrapbook, but is very proud that I've made several 9x9 hunting and fishing trip albums. ( The books can't be the Big 'ole 12x12 album and not too many "things" on the page either...lol)