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Traveling the world, taking pictures, meeting wonderful people, and accumulating amazing stories – all at someone else's expense. Hobnobbing with celebrities, going to ritzy events, and creating portraits of some of the most beautiful people in the world – and getting paid to do it. Going to your favorite sporting events and getting right up close to the action, meeting players and coaches, and getting into events behind closed doors – and then seeing your photos in a magazine or newspaper.
There are few people who wouldn't envy this glamorous side to professional photography, however most of these wouldn't be quite as interested once they found out what most of life is like as a pro. Making your living as a photographer means long years working to learn photography and then more long years working for peanuts to establish yourself by building your portfolio and your reputation. And even then, once you have firmly established yourself as a talented and experienced photographer, you still have to work long hours shooting, and be constantly marketing yourself to maintain a strong client base.
A QUICK DEFINITION
People hold to different requirements as to when you can consider yourself a pro. Some would say that a professional is anyone who earns money doing something – even if all they earn is a little bit of extra cash while the bulk of their income comes from something else entirely. I, however, would consider anyone to be a true professional photographer if he or she makes at least 70% of his or her income from photography. This means that most photographers are not entirely dependent upon their photography – a mix which tends to allow for the greatest expression of freedom.
END OF DEFINITION
If becoming a professional photographer is something that you are interested in, this is a good place to start learning about what being a pro is like – and what it takes to get there:
Learning how to be a photographer
Before you can be a professional photographer, you're going to have to be a photographer, and there is really only one way to become a photographer: Take photographs.
Obviously, to become a good photographer it is going to take more than that, but it really is the place to start. If you haven't done much photography before, buy a cheap camera and a lot of film – or a digital camera with a really big memory card – and then take lots of pictures of all sorts of things. Start by taking pictures of things that really interest you, and then show people your pictures, asking them to give an honest critique.
Once you discover some things that you really enjoy taking pictures of, find some books or articles discussing that specific type of photography, be it nature, sports, still-life, portrait, or whatever. A great way to train your eye is to study really great photos. Find magazines that have really great pictures and then try copying some of the types of pictures that the pros had published. This might sound silly, but almost all great artists spend time copying other great artists – painters go to the Louvre and copy the paintings there and musicians learn to play classics before they are able to write their own stuff.
Educate yourself by reading all about photography. There are a number of magazines dedicated to photography that will help you learn about all the different aspects, from the aesthetic to the technical. Reading a lot will also help you out later should you decide to become a pro; it's a lot easier to get your pics printed in magazines if you are able to write a good article or some good captions to go along with them – and the best way to learn writing is to do a lot of reading.
If you're still in school, you should find out if your school has any photography classes. Take all of them, and then find out if there is a local photographers' club or organization and take any classes that they have. If they don't have classes, join the club and go to their meetings. Some photographers will occasionally teach clinics about some aspect of photography – this is also a good opportunity to learn from and hobnob with an established photographer, which could become quite useful later on in your development.
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