alphadog

Not the same... think back to the REAL OLD DAYS and the OLYMPICS... if you are an amateur, YOU receive NO compensation, IF professional YOU are paid. THEN things changed for the WORSE.... now we have pros competing in the Olympics and could care less about ethics, morals, etc etc...

As for photographers... IF you do it for yourself and are NOT paid, then YOU are an amateur but IF paid for work, then you are a professional

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Wait...! Is that Ted Lasso!? .....Woah!!

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

paid = professional, not paid = amateur. It all depends on the situation. "Amateur" is based on the Latin word for love, amo. If you do something just because you love the process, results, etc. and don't get paid, you are a proud amateur. The comment stating that you don't stop being an engineer when you stop doing engineering is parallel only to the term "photographer." You take pictures because you love it, you are an amateur. You get paid for taking pictures you are a pro. In both cases, however, you are being a photographer.

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Yeah....just can't quite get outta this circus !! Ha!

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Absolutely nothing here that applies.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

Your a professional photographer thats now retired. I'm about to join you after more than four decades as a landscape photographer. Whats more important for me is finding the self motivation to move forward.

zarathu Loc: Bar Harbor, MDI, Maine

If you print photos, and people buy them, then you are professional. I print my photos in 13 x 19 inch in a custom frame I make that is 16.75 x 23.25 OD, with acid free matting/foam board and 98% UV block acrylic glazing. When I make them available for sale, people buy them.

You don’t have to make your living by it. You just have to be pretty good compared to other people who work in the same genre you do. And when you make them available for sale, you have offers. Until recently, I was an amateur. I never offered them for sale despite hearing people say I should. So one day at a MDI Photo Club gallery show talk, I had someone in the audience come up to me and say, “I want to buy the one you are holding”.

As I said in another post, actually getting it to her was harder than it looked. But now I know exactly what to do and I sold two more.

turp77 Loc: Connecticut, Plainfield

Once a professional photographer always a professional Photographer

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

Simple, being a professional at anything means you get paid to perform what you do. That has nothing to do with the skill you possess. It you stop being paid you are no longer a professional but you still have the same skills.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I don't think someone who worked for a short time as a professional photographer and spent the rest of their life doing something else would consider themselves a professional photographer. I retired from professional photography three years ago, and I wouldn't tell people I'm a professional photographer. I say I am a retired professional photographer.

huyenguyen408

Ha ha ha, very interesting. I like this discussion and read the whole thing. After 50 years shooting, many weddings, many parties, tours, events…, I am still not sure a pro or just for fun. I think the level of pro is up to what one produces: the quality, technique, contain, and create feeling. For those, some amateur is better than pro !

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

I've been retired eight years and I still consider myself an engineer, when asked. That being said, I'm also an amateur photographer who occasionally sells an image to a stock photo house (to date, I've sold 57 images). Since I don't make enough, as a photographer, to live on (I don't need to as I'm collecting two pensions and social security), I'll continue to consider myself an amateur. But since those pensions and my social security were earned while working as an engineer, I'll continue to refer to myself as an engineer, when asked.

KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

I've done all these things and about 20 some more (but don't have photos of them all). I think I did a "professional" job at about five of them, but I only actually got paid for three of them. It's been a great life.

Homeland Security

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Bohica Loc: SE Coast of NC

Stop the BS, If you get paid ypu're a professional, if not, you're amature

Bohica Loc: SE Coast of NC

WQhy all the BS? If you have ever made money as a photographer, then you were a professinal