I am not a \u201cprofessional\u201d photographer. Professional means earning a living through photography. The title does not automatically indicate the \u201cquality\u201d of the photographs produced are any better than the \u201camateur\u201d photographer can create.<\/p>\n
There is an implication that to be a \u201cprofessional\u201d one must be an excellent photographer since someone is willing to pay for your work. That is not true.\u00a0 Let me make this comparison:<\/p>\n
There are many \u201cprofessional\u201d race car drivers and \u201cprofessional\u201d golfers.\u00a0 After the \u201cleader board\u201d there is still a whole bunch of \u201calso ran\u201d that did or perhaps did not finish the contest. They are still \u00a0professionals are they not? For awhile anyway\u2026 They are good, just not \u201cgreat\u201d professionals.<\/p>\n
Then there are the great unwashed (amateur) masses that race and play golf for the fun\u2026 some of them are pretty dang good maybe better than pro, because they are not \u201con the clock\u201d trying to make a living.<\/p>\n
I consider myself a photographer. I don\u2019t need to add any adjectives like \u201cserious\u201d, \u201ccasual\u201d, \u201cpro\u201d, \u201ctalented\u201d, etc. Just \u201cphotographer\u201d is fine with me. \u00a0Adjectives are for other people to add if they are so inclined after viewing my efforts.<\/p>\n
I like good equipment and I realize the role the camera fills as a tool. The camera does not make the photograph, it captures the image. The competency or skill of the operator makes the photograph and those factors extend far beyond the tool being used. The tool needs to be functional and good quality but in the end, the presented image is what is judged.<\/p>\n
I judge an image by what I see. Good images I call photographs. All the others are snap shots, pix, pictures, a capture. I add the word \u201cphoto\u201d to that group too. The good to great image deserves the full name, photograph. The person who created a photograph, I consider a photographer.<\/p>\n
Not every picture I make is a photograph. But there are enough of them that are, that I feel I can claim the basic title. Some other people agree. That makes me feel good enough.<\/p>\n
Wondering about the title Camera Pro at the top? There are people who wear that title. They have a compulsive addiction to owning \u201cperfect\u201d camera gear. Many of them believe photographic perfection starts with the tool. I believe image perfection does, but for me the answer to the question is NO. I am not a camera pro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am not a \u201cprofessional\u201d photographer. Professional means earning a living through photography. The title does not automatically indicate the \u201cquality\u201d of the photographs produced are any better than the \u201camateur\u201d photographer can create. There is an implication that to be a \u201cprofessional\u201d one must be an excellent photographer since someone is willing to pay for your work. That is not true.\u00a0 Let me make this comparison: There are many \u201cprofessional\u201d race car drivers and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[43,16,29,145,22],"class_list":["post-3088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography-2","tag-amateur","tag-hobby","tag-photo","tag-photography","tag-professional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}