Left out of the picture

So here's what keep my brain fizzing in the wee hours of the morning.  Left handed cameras.  

Seriously. Although the chilli-laden late night pizza could possibly have played a role in the nocturnal meanderings.

12% of people are left handed, and as a righty forced to delegate teaching her left handed toddler to use (left handed) scissors to a lefty friend, and who remembers well how excited said friend was when she bought a fridge with a left handed door, I've some awareness of how awkward the most basic of daily functions are for left handers.

Extrapolating the stats, it's possible that 6 of the 52 members of our photographic club are lefties. Are there cameras for left handers?  Do left dominant photographers have to learn deftness on the right to operate their Nikon? A proponent of the viewfinder eyepiece rather than the LCD screen I can't imagine how much getting used to it takes to glue one's eye to the rubber while blindly pushing buttons with the wrong hand.   It's not just the shutter-release button, either, all the button controls, knobs and dials at the back and on top of the camera are on the right hand side as well.

And there's that awfully handy chunky grip on the right end, so useful for grabbing the camera and carrying it along ready to lift it up and grab a quick capture when needed.  A lefty would either have to carry it in her 'wrong' hand, or carry the camera upside down in her left.  Awkward.

"The world," my ambidextrous son's Occupational Therapist once announced, "is made for right handed people.  So we'll make him right handed."  How right she is, because as I sit here staring at my camera bag I note the zip runs left to right. The office printer buttons are on the right. And living in a country that drives on the left, the driver's seat controls are neatly tucked out of sight and almost out of reach on the right hand side.  

Yes, the skinny gene and straight dark hair fairy may have been off duty when I was put together but I'm awfully grateful that the right dominant angel was having a good day and claimed me as one of her own.  One less endless series of daily challenges to conquer.  

Nonetheless, in a world where some pretty unfathomable 'issues' are conceptualized and battled over, surely a protest picket should be set up outside Nikon and Canon et al?  Why should a customer be discriminated against because she is wired differently to the masses?  Paying the same money as a righty for a DSLR which she then has to adapt her brain and dexterity to use. Equal rights for the left, I say.  

And once the Left = Right movement gains momentum, car manufacturers had better watch out.  A left-handed option for driving controls and seat belts should be on their selection board alongside colour.