What are the real differences between an amateur photographer and the professional photographer? My quick answer to that question is that the professional get’s paid for doing what the amateur does for free because he or she loves doing it. True enough but the things that separate the professional photographer from the amateur photographer goes much deeper than that simple fact. What really sets the professional photographer apart from the amateur photographer then? Is it skill and experience? Is it equipment? Not necessarily.
It isn’t necessarily skill because there are many talented amateur photographers who just as skillful as any professional photographer. Some amateur photographers are even better photographers than many professional photographers are. It isn’t necessarily the type of equipment that the photographer owns and uses because many amateur photographers own and use professional grade equipment. So, what really separates the two then?
The amateur photographer takes pictures because he or she loves to take them. He or she photographs whatever he or she wants whenever he or she wants to. The professional doesn’t have those privileges. What he or she shoots, where the person hiring them determines him or she shoots, and when he or she shoots the picture. The amateur takes pictures of things they like and pass over things they don’t like; the professional doesn’t have that freedom. I was once hired to do a photo story on an opera company, I hate the opera and thought of having to travel with the opera company for two weeks wouldn’t have been something that I would have chosen to do for fun. Nevertheless, I make a living with a camera and I was being paid $2,500 plus expenses to do that story so I did it and acted like I was enjoying every minute of it.
The amateur has a day job to pay his or her bills but the professional photographer depends on his or her camera to pay his or her bills so picking up their camera takes on an entirely new meaning. The professional loves the craft just as much as the amateur but he or she doesn’t have the freedom to chose when, where, and what they will photograph. The professional may be photographing a dog show one day and shooting a full-contact Karate tournament the next. I once knew a very talented woman photographer who loved to shoot dog, cat, and horse shows because she loved animals. On the other hand, she hated violence but when she was approached to shoot a full-contact Karate tournament she pushed down her revulsion and shot it while acting like she loved every minute of it. That’s what professional do.
Dedication and commitment separate them. The amateur can wake up on a beautiful summer morning and decide to spend the day fishing. The professional has to be committed to picking up his or her camera everyday and make pictures that will sell. The professional photographer may wake up with a splitting headache that nothing seems to help but if he or she is scheduled to shoot an event he or she must push the pain from their mind and shoot the event. That’s where the dedication and commitment come into play. The professional has a job that they committed to doing and they do it no matter how they feel. If they really are too ill to do the job, they have some photographer standing in the wings that they can call on to stand in for them.
The professional photographer spends the time he or she’s not shooting an assignment or in the digital darkroom, marketing their product and services. They spend a great deal of their off time generating new clients. As a business owner, the professional photographer has to track his or her expenses. The amateur photographer can buy whatever new camera or other piece of photographic equipment they want as long as they can afford it, the professional photographer has to justify every purchase they make. Of course, the professional photographer can write most of those expenses off on their income tax.
I started out by saying that the professional photographer gets paid for doing what he loves to do and the amateur photographer does it simply because he or she loves to do it. That’s not always true because there are times when professional photographers have to photograph subjects that have no real interest for them on a personal level. They have to take those assignments because they don’t have the luxury to choose what they photograph. If you want to always enjoy what you are doing so it remain play and doesn’t become work, then remain an amateur photographer and keep your day job. Keep your day job and become a freelancer. As a freelancer, you can shoot what you want, where you want, when you want and even sell a few pictures every now and then to cover some of the cost of your hobby.
