The difference between an Amateur and a Pro photographer
photo credit: DetroitDerek
I’ve lost count of the number of times this one comes up. Usually in photo forums. I wrote this post today on a forum. Thought I may as well copy it here for posterity!
So you think you want to be a Pro? All fast cars and naked girls? Yeah right….
Before easily accessible stock libraries and the Internet arrived the late great Terence Donovan is quoted as saying:
“The problem for an amateur is that he/she has no reason to take a photograph.”
Some amateur photographers look at the equipment thay’ve got, look at the equipment a pro has and make the assumption that if they take pictures for money at weekends that makes them a pro. I suppose it does, for two days…! But joking aside, the difference is very clear cut from where I’m standing and its probably not the areas like “making a good image” that would initially jump to mind.
Where the Pro and amateur of 2008 meet each other is on the battlefield of stock. We do not meet each other on the battlefields of assignment work because as you will see - that’s a completely different ball game.
The Pro:
Pro photographers simply have to deliver, or they don’t work. They have to get the shot that the client wants, no matter what the location, weather or time of day. They have to deal with stupid blonde prissy PR girlies with an IQ slightly north of an onion; deal with timebound superstars who begrudge you even 10 minutes of their pampered existences. They have to light/pose/engage and get a killer shot in the few minutes they’re allocated with them (normally by the PR girly previously mentioned).
They have to turn some of the most un-photogenic dog ugly corporate executives into George Clooney for the company Annual Report and smile while they’re doing it. They have to smile and papmer every time some female executive says “I bet you’ll need to airbrush me”, when actually what they want to say “its OK I have my ugly filter on” or “I’m not sure your company can afford the retouching budget requred”.
They have to have a trillion££ worth of insurances in case something falls over; somebody falls over; or somebody decides to blame them for something going wrong. They need backups for absolutely everything they bring to the shoot because Sod and his laws will guarantee that radio trigger won’t fire when you need it to.
They have to be a creative, salesman, administrator, debt collector, peace maker, employer and accountant - and often all on the same day. They have to estimate accurately off the top of their head, deal with clients who don’t understand copyright or even the basic premise of “rights-managed” yet still win the job.
They have to fend off a million students emailing and looking for an assisting post or numerous salespeople trying to sell them canvas printing (PP note: just how many of you guys are there out there?!!) or a $500 a year link to some god awful web directory nobody’s ever going to find. They have to weed out genuine leads from timewasters and general weirdo-stalkers.
And at the end of the day, they have to wait 90 days to get paid for a job and they’re only as good as their folio.
Despite what they’d like you to believe Pro’s rarely get to shoot anything they actually want to and have to smile as the agency art director makes them create yet another hackneyed piece of crap that they know will never make their folio. All in the pursuit of money to make their mortgage repayment. Pro photography can be dullsville central.
The Amateur:
Amateur photographers work all week for a good regularly paid salary - shoot what they want, when they want to and if they happen to screw it up big time, they can always go back and have another go.
That’s the difference folks.
Donovan was right, but never foresaw the increased accessibility of stock photography production to the amateur market that came about a few years after his untimely death and which lets the amateur now directly compete with the pro in certain arenas (like travel etc).
Still want to be a Pro?
PP
It’s the same as any job rarely - rarely fun and interesting, but sometimes a great job will emerge now and again!
To be honest I think you are being a little negative, don’t forget the fact that Professional Photographers have the opportunity to do the things they like the most, more often, with better conditions than amateurs…
I honestly think that with all that negative stuff you talked about, a professional photographer really has to love what he’s doing… And even if you only get 10min from a model for instance you still have the opportunity as for amateurs they have to settle for what they can get…
Just my 2 cents… Keep it up!
Chris and Celso,
You’re both right. I’m just trying to show that its not all honey and money *all* of the time. The media do love to portray professional photographers as some sort of utopian existence; whereas those of us doing the day to day grind-it-out type stuff know thats far from the truth.
I get shoots I love and shoots I hate. But at the end of the day you have to *love* the process of making images or you won’t survive as a pro in this business for very long!
PP
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