What is a Photographer?

Nearly everyone carries a camera everywhere they go. Camera phones. PDA's. Point and shoots. I can't help but take offense to hear them tout themselves as "Photographers". I wish their was a line of distinction. Just because one can put on a band-aid does not make them a Doctor. Use a calculator and you're an accountant?

Being a Photographer encompasses an array of skills including Technical, Aesthetic, Compositional, and an intimate understanding of Light. If photographing people, add in Communication. If photographing moving subjects let's not forget Reflexes. Today's Photographer also better be Computer Savvy to master complex editing, retouching, compositing, and archiving of their work. Let's not forget Business Skills. You can take the best pictures in the world but if no-one sees them you'd best find an alternate source of income.

The sheer volume of images being taken by consumers in today's market makes success in Photography far more difficult than in years past. The sad part is that consumers are taking far worse photographs today than they did a quarter-century ago. When film was the medium people were more passionate about photography, and there was a very tangible cost attached every time a shutter was released. You had to want it. The camera's and film were of exceptional quality, and the resulting images much more vibrant than the digital mud of consumer camera's people accept as the norm today. People don't take the time to create a pleasing image, and to make it even worse subsequently don't understand how to improve upon the results in digital post-production.

Photography is an art. Those of us who practice the art take our work very seriously. We don't take pictures, we create images. We translate what everyone else sees into our personal vision because we don't see things the way everyone else does. We use technology the way a painter uses a brush, the way a sculptor uses clay.

We have style.