Post: #1

Today I opened three women (one was a test opening on a late-middle aged woman) about their professional-style cameras. Went with the standard "hey is that a good camera?' elderly opener. I followed up with asking about the brand comparisons - two Nikons, then a Canon...I played the latter off by mentioning the former.

It reminded me that photographers are brand-territorial, so bringing up the subject gets them emotionally activated.

Other things I riffed, or could have riffed:
-How they got into the brand (personal but not too personal)
-How everyone today has a cellphone so the quality of photos on facebook/etc has gone way down
-My friend's GF in college worked in the campus darkroom, have you been shooting long enough to remember what that was like? (I wonder if this can be leveraged for some suggestive/NLP purposes.)
-A buddy of mine worked on the newspaper shooting sports photos, got to use a $2,000 camera for free
-When you were young, did you ever thinking that taking a picture would capture somebody's soul?
-I had a friend who bought an expensive camera then used it to take photos of himself in the mirror (bogus story, I just made it up)
-OKCupid's post about online dating photos showed that photos taken with more expensive cameras got better results for the daters, do you think that's because of better picture quality or more attractive people have better cameras to begin with?
-My uncle is a photographer, has a tiny old film camera he carries around.

It's super easy to transition from cameras to travel, talking up photos you took when traveling or the time you left your camera at the hostel so you didn't feel chained and pressured to record the experience.

Women taking pictures are connoisseurs and artists at the same time (or think they are), and so can be approached from both angles.

Related aside: I read once on a Roissy thread that a response to women asking you to take a picture is to zoom in on their boobs and then hand it back saying "I think it really captures your personalities." Did that a few months ago to some big-chested girls and got giggle/arm-punch combo, was a big hit.