CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Yep - there is more smoke being blown up his ......
Oh, never mind.
Just more of the, "I'm new, don't know much, but am going pro."
Then everyone with no skin in game tell that person to go for it!
Sure...no risk for you.

Makes perfect sense when thousands of studios are going out of business to jump right in. There ARE studios that are successful and doing VERY well in this environment, but they are established and the work is more spectacular than ANYTHING I have seen on UHH except maybe PhotoArtsLA whose work is beyond compare.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Indeed. It is somewhat analogous to restaurants. I've heard that about 90% of new start-ups fail within 3 years.

The only market I see currently prospering for qualifiied photographers is specialty work (such as food and product advertising), and that requires a long list of active clients and a long well known work history (resume).

Owning your own photography studio may have been perceived as a glamorous profession at one time, but the opportunities today are few in a market full with relative newbie digital photographers all vying for work.
Sad, really. But everything changes eventually.

Georgews Loc: Wellington, New Zealand

Hi Pataashb. Community college courses are mostly just short courses of (usually) evening classes that you can take. No Degrees, just tuition with a tutor and a bunck of like-minded students. You are never too old for these. I taught these classes for yoars and had students ranging from 16 to mid 70's. They are a great learning experience for very little outlay.
Join a camera club if there's one handy - get plent of advice and critique there. But get out, take photos and look for places like charities etc that need photos done for little cost where you can practice practice, practice.
I am now 68 and am expanding my photo skills and subjects all the time. Good luck

NiagaraJim Loc: Niagara Falls, ON

Hi Paatashb, I second Festina Lente suggestion of joining a camera club. Make sure they have frequent competition nights were your pictures are judged and learn from the comments made by the judges on your pictures as well as the other members. You also can get included in photo opportunities that you might not other wise even now about.
Like the others have said keep shooting and learning

Good Luck with your Photo Studio

larryzplace Loc: Elk Grove Village Illinois

Most of the time the people i have seen that have a passion for a hobby and end up trying to earn a living at that hobby tend to end up hating the hobby..... At 42 you have a long way to go before retiring. Wanting to take shortcuts as you stated also in many cases ends up in failure.... Many have been there before you.... Think long and hard before you make a leap like this..... Especially since you are new to photography..... Wondering if you have had any type of artistic endeavors in the past? If so what were they?
Wishing you the best of luck whatever you plan to do.

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

i can't read this any more............obviously the OP has left the building and we're talking to ourselves.......

ijustshotu Loc: Northern California

haven't seen paatashb in a while. hope he's payin' attention.

catcher T Loc: Detroit

I say go for it! also, and I am older then you, whenever I take a college course, I have yet to be the oldest in my class.
Do you research, arm yourself with education, do your demogragphics such as how many photographers in the area your wanting to work in, also, maybe find a nitch in photography, something that no one else is doing maybe like a gimmick of sorts

rowandjr Loc: New Jersey

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

The first thing is it seems like to me is that you have gone from dead stop to a full gallop.
If you decide that you want to enter the photography business you need to under stand, it should be run like business
You might find a photographer that will let you become his assistant and provide you not only experience in photography.
I am not sure a college could teach you the things that you need or give you the knowledge you might need to become a successful photographer.
You have to take you camera and go out and learn your camera and it's capabilities. The best way to learn is of course that the camera out and shoot, shoot. Back in the day part of the learning process was to keep a log of shutter speeds, lens openings. Now most of that data is given in each image.
I do not think paying for an on line photo course is a great idea at this stage in your photography life.
I would suggest you read the user manual that accompanied you camera. If you find it hard to follow or understand. Go to the nearest book store, or Amazon and took the book your camera written by Phillip Busch.
You must develop contacts or people must see your photos and decide that they want you to take photos of them. If you shoot remember if you decide to show some of your work, show your best shots etc.
You have a good basis with the Canon 7D. Keep in mind that camera bodies maybe not at the mid level grade camera have a cycle. Keeping up with the camera body cycle is almost like running on a treadmill. The faster you run the treadmill the harder it is to keep up, so don't try unless you have deep pockets or a well financed camera fund. Start purchasing good lens. Lenses do not depreciate as fast as camera bodies. Your camera was released for sale in September 2009.
Canon will release a major firmware update the middle of August 2012, that will add additional features that are not now available to you currently.
Keep in mind that if you own a studio, you become the photographer, the book keeper or accountant, the marketing manager, you will wear all the hats under the photo studio roof, lighting tech, you will become your own editor or post processor.
Your day job may be boring, but I would keep that job until you really get an idea and feel for running a photography studio and business.
I have been taking photos since the 70s first with a Yashica G 120 film camera, then to the 35 mm camera body. About ten years ago I started shooting with a series of Camera bodies.
Taking photos is the easy part in a sense. Taking your camera and being able to adjust the settings on your camera and make it perform so you can take photos that people want to pay money for is your goal. Cameras today give a person the ability to take the camera from the box charge that battery, put on a lens in most cases if the camera manufacturers usually provide a kit lens, an 18-55 mm lens that give you a chance to have a lens to use quickly after you buy the lens.
Most of the people in this forum are willing to give you advice on what might be wrong with your photos, so the question you think might be the dumbest question ever is the same question the guy next to wants to ask,
Welcome to the forum and good luck

Victoria1233 Loc: Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Just thinking that it might be helpful for you to post some images in the Photo Gallery section of this forum and ask for some serious, constructive criticism.

There are some excellent amateur photographers here on UHH, as well as great professional photographers with many years experience in the business. I'm sure they would be happy to give you some good advice and be able to offer some really constructive suggestions.

Let's face it, you've got to make a start somewhere and there's a wide variety of talent on this forum to share their knowledge, so this forum is as good a place to start as anywhere else.

DPS (or the Digigtal Photography School which is run by a photographer here in Melbourne where I live) is another great internet site to pick up tips & camera info. The member's are from all around the world, not just Australia. I think they are sponsored by the New York Academy of Photography or something like that. I subscribe to their weekly newsletter and they have regular guest posts. It's located at http://digital-photography-school.com/. I suspect a few people from this forum would be familiar with DPS.

brokeweb Loc: Philadelphia

Have you looked at CCP? It's at 17th and Spring Garden and very easy to get to. It's cheaper than most other schools. I got my Comp Sciences A.S. degree there. You can most likely get some financial assistance too. You should talk to admissions...BTW, I was 48 when I got my degree. there are lots of older people in the classes so you won't feel out-of-place. Most of the younger students take advantage of an older person's wisdom. They will respect you not make fun of your age.

Just hop on the Broad Street Line and get off at Spring Garden. It's 3 blocks up on the left side past T.V. 17 studio

brokeweb Loc: Philadelphia

DPS has an e-book called "Going Pro" download for around $10. Darren Rowse's e-books are pretty good. I have purchased quite a few of them. Since they are in PDF, you can put them on your phone.

Victoria1233 Loc: Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Agree with you Brokeweb, I bought the eBook on photographing wildflowers which I found really helpful.

Rathyatra Loc: Southport, United Kingdom

I agree with Bill 41 - you are never too old to learn and study motivated by interest can be extremely fruitful - when I retired 8 years ago I did a 26 week course to get my ECDL IT qualification and entered the course with some trepidation. It was, as many are, a mixed ability course and we not only learned from the tutor but learned from each other as students - I was able to gain my qualification in 22 weeks.

A year ago I attended a 4 day residential course on Digital Photography and Photoshop - again an enjoyable experience and I really picked up some useful lessons.

So I would say go for it and given your motivation to become professional photographer and start a business you are already halfway there

Good luck with your endeavours.

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable abilty of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour"
Thoreau