I read William's post in answer to Marc's question about what can be taught and I thought his point about left/right handed might make for an interesting totally unscientific poll.
I remember the question came up during my flying days and the results were quite interesting. In the squadron we had way more left handed pilots than average for the population and there was number evidence that the profession definitely drew to it first born and only children. I say children because some of us never really grew up.
If the post is of any interest then I'll pop in every so often and add a reply adding up results.
My left hand is a wimp, my right is a powerhouse!
Maybe it is more important which eye you use to look through the viewfinder (the right or the left?). I use both but often get edgier comps by using my left eye and more 'saf'e and structured ones by using my right. Darwin
first born & southpaw (writing, drawing, eating) sports and strength I'm righthanded - although I can switch hit at the plate.
Sure Darwin, using both eyes will work as well. I am not sure if it is more important than handedness - since handedness is practiced constantly.
Not that being a President is an art form as we practice but it isn't spin doctoring an art? Regardless 45% of our presidents were lefthanded. When you watch movies notice the handedness of actors is well above the norm (10-12%). In my graduating class (design field) 40% were left handed. In the design offices I worked in more than half were southpaws. The greatest mind in our recent history, Da Vinci, was left-handed. There is certainly a documented and scientific correlation with art/design and brain/lobe dominance.
Bats: L
Throws: L
Plenty of good baseball memories; left eye for the viewfinder, but I don't usually have it up to my eye while I plan a photo; firstborn; I do throw a frisbee right handed, and I consider my right hand to be very useful.
My wife (right handed) says that the only reason there are a disproportionate number of left-handers responding to this thread is that we think we're special, so we like to share it with people.
Right handed and right eye dominate but I need both eyes to take a halfway decent shot it seems.
Posted by Peter Carroll on June 17, 2007 at 11:09 PM
Here's a summary so far:
# people who responded: 20
# left handed: 8
# right handed: 11
# ambidextrous: 1
(# answers I couldn't figure out: 1 - Mark Stahlke, huh?)
Darwin's point about the eye used to finalize comps in the viewfinder is an interesting one. I use both but more for reasons of fine focus tuning. Out of 8 people, 4 use the left eye,3 use the right, and one uses both. Next time you're out in the field give your other eye a try and see if it brings an edgyness to your work.
Thanks for answering the poll. It's totally unscientific (margin of error +/- 100 percentage points) and all in good fun.
If we get more people answering over the next few days I'll post updated results.
Posted by Harold Ankney on June 18, 2007 at 12:29 AM
Left handed, left eye dominate and on the right side of my brain
I write and eat left handed, but play sports right handed, my dad refused to teach me any sports using my left hand. I should clarify that I write on paper left handed, on a vertical surface I write right handed. Just odd I suppose. Right eye to the viewfinder.
I am so terminally right handed I might as well have not been born with a left hand. Right eye dominant, too.
Posted by Dan Baumbach on June 18, 2007 at 9:35 AM
Third born and Left handed.
- Dan.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on June 18, 2007 at 10:03 AM
Yes.
It really depends on what I am doing. Writing is right-handed, simply because that is what I was TOLD to do. When you are 6 years old, you don't argue with the teacher
Completely new motions I can pick up with either hand. I can also easily switch thinking from left to right (as in reading) to right to left. It use to drive my organic chemisty TA absolutely nuts. The lab instructions always gave directions and diagrams for setting up equipment from left to right. I'd set it up right to left. It was correct, but looked wrong. Eventually she gave up and just sent the prof over to check things out. It confused him as well, but he got used to it...
Posted by Mitch Erwin on June 18, 2007 at 10:19 AM
Right here! For the moment! And I am the 2nd of three. I guess they say the middle is the weird one, right?!
Posted by Grace Blair on June 18, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Ambidex I suppose. Eat and write with r hand, PC mouse with L, did about half of my surgery (when I was in practice) with my left hand, either eye, L leg and arm is strongest, eldest of 3. I may have started out L handed and was changed by parents or when I went to school?
Posted by Sharon Menke on June 18, 2007 at 11:33 AM
I am right handed. Except for the time that I smashed my right middle finger in the car door, then I was left handed for a while.
Posted by Peter Carroll on June 18, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Latest summary:
Out of 35 people: 12 left, 21 right, 2 ambidextrous
Out of 15 people: 8 left eye, 6 right eye, 1 both
Fascinating answers. I now understand the importance of the wording of a poll question for people like Gallup et al. What's up with righties switching to left for the PC mouse? And I think Daryl Barnhouse, you win the "What the...?" award because you write left handed on a horizontal surface but right handed vertically. Great stuff.
Right handed and eyed....can't do anything with my left hand. Do you know what the ratio of left to right-handed is in the general population? And do we match up or are we different?
Left for everything here. Interesting to note that we often hear only about 20% of the population is left handed. Does the higher portion here reflect something about photographers oris it more along the lines that Kent M's wife pointed out?
Here's a couple more to ponder:
I'm in Hawaii right now fishing yellowfin tuna. All four of us on the boat are left handed.
I recently worked with four other people, all strangers before the meeting. We decided to go to lunch and while going through the usual drill to accomodate left elbows, we discovered that all five of us were left handed. First time in my experience.
Posted by Pat Sampson on June 18, 2007 at 10:06 PM
I'm right handed but left eye dominant. Also batted, chopped wood and use a mouse left handed. Can't write with either hand.
Posted by Peter Carroll on June 19, 2007 at 12:04 PM
Latest summary:
Out of 41 people: 26 right handed, 13 left handed, 2 ambidextrous
Out of 19 people: 7 right eye, 11 left eye, 1 both
Alice - Something in the neighborhood of 15% seems to be accepted by statisticians as the percentage of the population who are left handed.
Posted by Richard Ditch on June 19, 2007 at 12:32 PM
Ok, I'm a leftie (handed and politics). But I shoot right-eyed. I can write upside down and mirror-imaged if I don't have to go too fast. Anybody brave enough to talk about which hand is Master of their own domain? Oh, and I'm a Mac user, so might as well include that minority factor in all of this.
I'm the second of two sons - my elder brother was born left-handed but forced to be right-handed by the evil grade school teachers in the mid '40s, and he's even stranger than I am.
I found that my right eye sees subjects as "warmer" than my left. It was unexpected and I switched from my left because my left eyeglass lens was getting scratched up! The difference was about the difference of one grade of an 81 series filter. Oh yes, I am a "rightie" (less sinister).
Posted by Kent Staubus on June 21, 2007 at 7:09 PM
I am right handed, and also use my right eye when shooting a rifle.
I'll jump in to lift up the left handed numbers (in the end I'll say that I use right hand to write, but that's teachers fault). Interesting observation, Hank! My wife is also leftie (she even writes with left hand). I was very proud to be leftie and went to practice writing from right to left with left arm in the army (there wasn't much else to do there). My dominant eye is left also. It's fading away faster because of that, so I'll try right eye somewhere in the future. For those curious, jump leg for lefties is right and for rghties is left odd, but true.
Marko
Posted by Peter Carroll on June 22, 2007 at 11:45 AM
Final numbers:
48 people: 31 right handed, 15 left, 2 ambi
26 people: 12 right eyed, 13 left, 1 both (with a few saying they want to give it a try)
So it seems a few of you are not in your right mind, a few not in your left, and a few others... well... have a nice day
Discussion
54 repliesI remember the question came up during my flying days and the results were quite interesting. In the squadron we had way more left handed pilots than average for the population and there was number evidence that the profession definitely drew to it first born and only children. I say children because some of us never really grew up.
If the post is of any interest then I'll pop in every so often and add a reply adding up results.
I'll start off: 1 for the lefties.
My Dad was a pilot (B-17 in WWII), but an "anomaly". He is a rightie and the youngest of 3 (though both his siblings were sisters).
Maybe it is more important which eye you use to look through the viewfinder (the right or the left?). I use both but often get edgier comps by using my left eye and more 'saf'e and structured ones by using my right. Darwin
Interesting comment by Darwin about which eye to use. I will have to experiment with that.
Sure Darwin, using both eyes will work as well. I am not sure if it is more important than handedness - since handedness is practiced constantly.
Not that being a President is an art form as we practice but it isn't spin doctoring an art? Regardless 45% of our presidents were lefthanded. When you watch movies notice the handedness of actors is well above the norm (10-12%). In my graduating class (design field) 40% were left handed. In the design offices I worked in more than half were southpaws. The greatest mind in our recent history, Da Vinci, was left-handed. There is certainly a documented and scientific correlation with art/design and brain/lobe dominance.
Throws: L
Plenty of good baseball memories; left eye for the viewfinder, but I don't usually have it up to my eye while I plan a photo; firstborn; I do throw a frisbee right handed, and I consider my right hand to be very useful.
My wife (right handed) says that the only reason there are a disproportionate number of left-handers responding to this thread is that we think we're special, so we like to share it with people.
Pete D.
# people who responded: 20
# left handed: 8
# right handed: 11
# ambidextrous: 1
(# answers I couldn't figure out: 1 - Mark Stahlke, huh?)
Darwin's point about the eye used to finalize comps in the viewfinder is an interesting one. I use both but more for reasons of fine focus tuning. Out of 8 people, 4 use the left eye,3 use the right, and one uses both. Next time you're out in the field give your other eye a try and see if it brings an edgyness to your work.
Thanks for answering the poll. It's totally unscientific (margin of error +/- 100 percentage points) and all in good fun.
If we get more people answering over the next few days I'll post updated results.
Harold
Danny.
RickT
Eating : Left
Sports : Right
Dominant eye : Left
I've heard that most lefties are at least a little ambidextrous, or aren't as strongly left handed, as righties are right handed.
- Dan.
It really depends on what I am doing. Writing is right-handed, simply because that is what I was TOLD to do. When you are 6 years old, you don't argue with the teacher
Completely new motions I can pick up with either hand. I can also easily switch thinking from left to right (as in reading) to right to left. It use to drive my organic chemisty TA absolutely nuts. The lab instructions always gave directions and diagrams for setting up equipment from left to right. I'd set it up right to left. It was correct, but looked wrong. Eventually she gave up and just sent the prof over to check things out. It confused him as well, but he got used to it...
Out of 35 people: 12 left, 21 right, 2 ambidextrous
Out of 15 people: 8 left eye, 6 right eye, 1 both
Fascinating answers. I now understand the importance of the wording of a poll question for people like Gallup et al. What's up with righties switching to left for the PC mouse? And I think Daryl Barnhouse, you win the "What the...?" award because you write left handed on a horizontal surface but right handed vertically. Great stuff.
Left eye dominant
1st born
Here's a couple more to ponder:
I'm in Hawaii right now fishing yellowfin tuna. All four of us on the boat are left handed.
I recently worked with four other people, all strangers before the meeting. We decided to go to lunch and while going through the usual drill to accomodate left elbows, we discovered that all five of us were left handed. First time in my experience.
Pat
Out of 41 people: 26 right handed, 13 left handed, 2 ambidextrous
Out of 19 people: 7 right eye, 11 left eye, 1 both
Alice - Something in the neighborhood of 15% seems to be accepted by statisticians as the percentage of the population who are left handed.
I'm the second of two sons - my elder brother was born left-handed but forced to be right-handed by the evil grade school teachers in the mid '40s, and he's even stranger than I am.
That;s an interesting idea, to use your other eye and see if it changes how you see. I'm gonna give it a try.
My first-born is a leftie.
Kent in SD
Marko
48 people: 31 right handed, 15 left, 2 ambi
26 people: 12 right eyed, 13 left, 1 both (with a few saying they want to give it a try)
So it seems a few of you are not in your right mind, a few not in your left, and a few others... well... have a nice day