What do you concider a professional photographer?

Question

What credentials do you believe makes a photogrpaher a professional?

What seperates us from the 21yr old who had one photography class in college and now tells everyone he does it on a professional level?

Is it membership to a national organization? Years of experience? Or is it the fact that they just charge for their work? Tell me here. Or even vent if you would like.

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10+ Years Professional Photographer
Certified by the Professional Photographic Certification Commission
PPA Multi-award winner

Answer 1

A professional photographer is recognized by his/her work

Professional Photographer is a designation granted by Photographic Certification Commission, the world’s leading certification agency imaging professionals.
Those who have earned the Certified Professional Photographer designation have passed a comprehensive written examination measuring their technical expertise, and have successfully submitted their work to a panel of judges for review and approval.
Every five years, a Certified photographer must renew his or her credentials by participating in continuing education programs and periodically submitting work for critical evaluation. This helps assure you that Certified photographers maintain their level of expertise and continue to develop new skills and techniques.

Answer 2

If you make money for your work you are a professional. Plain and simple. There are no other qualifiers.

Professional: One who earns a living in a given or implied occupation: hired a professional to decorate the house.

There are a vast number of photographers out there calling themselves professional who are little more then hacks. Go to Wal-Mart and get a portrait done.

By strict definition someone who did photography solely for the love of the art would be called an amateur.

Amateur: Latin source, amātor, “lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective,” and from its Latin-derived French source, amateur, with a similar range of meanings.

Answer 3

A professional photographer is not only someone who gets paid for taking pictures, but someone who approches taking a picture as an art. A true photographer is an artist with a camera. He/she knows how to utilize light to make an ordinary shoot into a work of art. Study light, study art, THEN learn to use your camera to open up a new way of seen things . Anyone can take a picture of a flower, but add the right light and angle, proper f-stop and that flower becomes art.

Answer 4

I consider a person who has a buisness and has a degree in photography a professional photographer.

Answer 5

if he is making enough money to live independant of another job to support him then he is a professional there are TONS of Pro's that didnt take a lick of school and made bank- photography is one of those things where some people just have it even if they havent been "trained" in the field

Answer 6

Well, usually it is someone that has a business that is to take pictures of people for portraits, or of special events like weddings, birthdays, etc.
The only time I have ever contracted a photographer (my wedding) he had a business, and a portfolio showing his work, and I liked the quality of his photography. When we got our pictures of our wedding, they were great quality and great shots. We were very happy with it.