How Do You Define: Amateur, Semi-pro, Pro? Total results: 2 Pages: 1 [ 1] |
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 ID: 196690 Posts: 58 | Date: 2007-09-30 05:51 Hi,
would like to gather opinions from models, photographers, stylists, etc on this
matter.
In our profile (at least in Jurgita) we are able to select status (amateur,
semi-pro and pro)
how do you define this?
To me, when someone states they are a pro photographer I could only think that
he is full time, and makes a living out of photography.
To others, it may be the skill associated with the photographer.
What is your definition? |
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 ID: 182744 Posts: 1554 | Date: 2007-09-30 07:20 The original definition of an amateur was one who did it for the love of it and
took no pay. The definition of a professional was one who got paid for his
work.
Over the years those definitions have taken on another meaning: One of level of
quality.
Semi professional becomes a medium in between the the quality scale from new/low
quality to experienced/high quality.
Of course, in real life, new does not always translate into poor quality or
unskilled and professional does not always mean a top-notch job.
For the purposes of Jurgita's ranking, one is looking at a combination of
experience, quality and money-earning capability to define someone as
professional.
Now, there are some very, very experienced people who do extremely good work but
prefer not to take any pay. Classically, one would define these people as
amateurs. However, because of the modern almost derogatory connotations of the
word, calling someone an amateur can be an insult.
But if one is professional, that implies an income and an interest from the tax
man.
Semi professional can be looked at as a transitional state from newbie to
experienced or, might be selected by someone who does it for the love of it but
does not want the negative associations with the word 'amateur'.
Lord knows, though, that there are plenty of professional photographer and
models who get work but haven;t a clue what they are doing. Generally, in a
capitalistic society, these bad apples get weeded out in the natural course of
not generating repeat business. Yet in our industry, particularly on the
modeling side there are other unmentionable factors that keep some people
employed who should have been left out to pasture.
Generally, however, you can look at someone's work and determine whether they
are professional in their work product or not.
By the way: In the United States of America there are only 125,000 registered
professional photographers in a population of 300 million. And that number is
falling. Why? One is increased competition by Joe Blow who can go down to the
camera store, pick up a point and shoot and digitally render an image that
appears pro-quality. Another is that the digital era has expanded the options in
the multi media field and reduced the demand for people skilled at dark room
work or post processing. For the purposes of surveying professional
photographers, the criteria is that it be your main source of income. With so
many other money making opportunities open for someone trained in camera use,
obtaining a photography license takes a back seat to several new types of
licenses that also include photography.
Take me, for instance...I have a publishing license which allows me to take
pictures professionally for my company's publishing purposes. Why pay for an
additional, redundant photography license? I have been over the years but now,
with costs increasing so much, I am considering not renewing that license. I
will still be able to take and sell just as many pictures as before but
technically I would no longer be listed anywhere as a 'professional'
photographer.
However, losing that designation alone might prompt me to go ahead and renew my
photographer's license! Have faith that the universe will unfold as it should  |
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Announcement |
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| From now on 50 activity points will turn into 1 credit, so you may earn credits as easy as never before !!!
All models and photographers are able to moderate photos! We will save a lot of time for moderators this way. Please read the short instruction on how to moderate and earn points very quickly.
Also, models and photographers can moderate part of the profiles as well! This is a fast way to earn some action points and credits! |
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Total results: 2 Pages: 1 [ 1] |
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