Annie_Girl Loc: It's none of your business

I know there are a lot more hobbyists on the hog than professionals, but I was wondering who is a professional? and what do you specialize in?

for this discussion lets classify professional as you operate a legal photography business, (whatever guidelines your local government has set for that). professional for this thread will have nothing to do with how much time or income comes from photography, I never bought into that line of bull.

I am a professional, been in business for just over 3 years. I specialize in portraits, mostly female.

Haveago Loc: Swindon, Wiltshire. UK.

Well that takes me out of the equation, next. :-)

Baz

jazzplayer

Annie - would it be appropriate to post my rather lengthy story of "how I accidentally became a pro photographer" here? I've been saving it for a topic like this one.
I think the line between what makes one a "professional" or not is blurry indeed - or at least greyscale... ;-)

Annie_Girl Loc: It's none of your business

Yes of course. I fell into being a professional as well.

jazzplayer

ok then, here's my own little anecdote about how I rather unintentionally came to be regarded - and paid - as a pro photographer, when all the while I was an unschooled and inexperienced hack. This is why i personally think the "professional" designation can be a bit ambiguous:

In the mid 90's, I was working for a mail-order retail company that produced monthly catalogs. Digital photography, Quark and Photoshop were new things, but the writing was already on the wall that publishing was going to go digital. One day my boss came in with one of the early Olympus "Camedia" models, and we were discussing the pros & cons, and feasibility of starting to shoot our own product photography digitally, since it would be most economical if we could pull it off. He tossed me the manual and said, "See if you can figure out how to work that thing," and in that moment a "photography career" of sorts was born. I had never even owned a camera, much less learned anything about them!

Of course it was not that hard to figure out the camera itself, but oh yeah, lighting - we forgot about that. And we took some REALLY terrible pics, many of which ended up on the pages of our catalogs (whose layouts were no works of art, either, btw!) Early on, it was obvious we had to somehow shoot pics without extreme graininess, awful yellowish casts and every manner of colorspace adulteration, and I began some research in earnest in figuring out this lighting thing - THEN we started getting some better photos...

Meanwhile, shooting our own photos was such a huge money-saver, I started doing a lot of it. When Nikon came out with the D1, we jumped on it immediately, and the photo quality (and my experience level) steadily progressed. When we remodeled our building, it included a nice big photo room with cyc walls and everything. Eventually we moved to a Canon 1Ds, which was an absolute treat that it turns out I could not even fully appreciate at first. With the high-end gear available, we were seriously in production, and people around the company were regarding me - and introducing me - as "the photographer", and that made me pretty uncomfortable because some of us surely knew better. Still the fact was, I was earning my living taking photos and doing post work, so I was legally a "professional photographer" also! And I am such a hack! My deepest study in photography came from reading a Canon "Lens Work" reference book and a few Dan Margulis Photoshop books. And yet, there is no denying that clicking off and processing a couple of hundred thousand photos for publication is a valuable learning experience.

But I am also pleased to report here that in my eventual position as a department manager, we did end up hiring a "real photographer" - and a really good one at that!

And of course, now that we have places like the 'Hog & Youtube, learning photography is easy! And now that I have some considerable niche photography chops, I am an appropriately unemployed amateur. :-)

Photosmoke

What is the point of your question

redpepper Loc: Central NY

I enjoyed your story, jazzplayer. I've been into photography for about 30 yrs and I'm a Canon girl. I just seriously started shooting in manual, but my image composition has always been pretty good. My husband bought me the 70-200 f/4L and a macbook pro, but now expects me to "jump" into business. I've no idea what my style is and my work is not of professional quality yet. I do spend quite a lot of time on here absorbing info as well as trying to wrap my head around studio lighting. It's nice to learn that some photogs, such as yourself, happened to fall into it.

Xantoz Loc: Delaware

Professional for 40 years. Went to college for photography. Started doing commercial work. Landscapes. Art progressed to weird and added people somewhere alon the way. Got sucked into doing a wedding and its been people ever since. Went digital back when the digital backs came out in the 90's. I am registered and licensed. Insured and have a small studio in my home which is in a commercial district in an old town.

It has been a life long profession, passion and dream. Sometimes I have done it part time and had other jobs to fund my lens addiction. Sometimes it's been full time. I also do artwork commercial and fine.

One thing for sure I love it. Have embraced the new digital technologies and am always open to learning something new. We all have a vision and a gift to share pro or non pro! I see pro work that would terrify me if I was a client. And non pro work that blows me away!!
Sorry to rattle on! Have fun life is short so reach for the stars!

Radioman Loc: Ontario Canada

******

Being professional only means that a person has made photography their profession - their means of living.
Being professional does not prove that they know more about photography or that they can take better photographs than a so-called 'hobbyist'. Most photographers become very good at different kinds of photography. e.g. portrait, weddings, landscape, macro etc. Some are very good at post-processing. Here at the UHH we can all learn from, and help each other.

todd gieg

In fairness to those not looking for lengthy descriptions, I suggest that those interested in the professional histories of members might like to visit my website; toddgiegphoto.com.

NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

What is the point of YOUR question? Is it wrong to start a legitimate discussion thread that isn't a technical problem of some sort? It sounds like you are trying to put Annie down for some reason. I truly do not understand the negative tone of your post.

profpb Loc: Venice, Florida

I am a member of NAPP and a Nikonian gold member.

I have never charged a penny for one of my photo images.

I am already rich and don't need anymore money...

... but I am old and retired. The State and Federal governments send me a check every month for now. I may be charging for my photos soon, however.

shutterbug64 Loc: Colorado

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialized set of tasks and to complete them for a fee."

With that, I have been a professional since 1968. The Navy taught me, I opened a portrait studio in 1972. I am small town so my clients become friends. Not rich, digital has made it a struggle compared to the film days. But then who can say they have spent their life making a living doing what they love. It's been a dance. Annie Girl, you need a mentor, I'm here for you, not saying I know it all. For those starting out and need the money, don't quit your day job. When I got out of Navy I started it as a part time until it was making more than my full time, then I went full time.

sbesaw Loc: Boston

That is a great story and points to what happens to folks caught up in the need to explore new technology, they become the de facto experts as they learn..great read

PAO Loc: Lewiston NY

I sold a picture once, I guess I'm a professional!