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Archive 2009 · Hobbyist or Professional

jeremy_clay
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p.3 #1 · Hobbyist or Professional

pro, yo.

Nov 07, 2009 at 05:36 PM

kakomu
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p.3 #2 · Hobbyist or Professional

As an aside, I was just asked to photograph all of the cats at the Shelter that I volunteer at.

Nov 07, 2009 at 07:36 PM

jcolwell
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p.3 #3 · Hobbyist or Professional

M Vers wrote:
Can I be both?

Not here. CPS Canada requires that 100% of your income comes from photography.

Nov 07, 2009 at 07:46 PM

RobertLynn
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p.3 #4 · Hobbyist or Professional

Wow. The last I read in the US, you only had to have a majority of your income from photography.

Nov 07, 2009 at 07:52 PM

outlawyer
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p.3 #5 · Hobbyist or Professional

"Actually photography is one of the cheaper hobbies. Pales in comparison to vintage and luthier grade guitar collector/players."

+1; especially digital photography. Most people have a computer already these days, and a really fine printer is amazingly cheap, for what you get.

Nov 07, 2009 at 08:00 PM

M Vers
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p.3 #6 · Hobbyist or Professional

jcolwell wrote:
M Vers wrote:
Can I be both?

Not here. CPS Canada requires that 100% of your income comes from photography.

Well 100% of my income DOES come from photography. My point was I spend more time shooting for myself than I do for any number of my clients--in which case I'm not only a professional but an enthusiast as well. Regardless this isn't 'the world according to CPS Canada'....or is it?

Nov 07, 2009 at 10:20 PM

jcolwell
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p.3 #7 · Hobbyist or Professional

M Vers wrote:
-in which case I'm not only a professional but an enthusiast as well. Regardless this isn't 'the world according to CPS Canada'....or is it?

Of course, you're a professional and an enthusiast as well. I am too, for both Naval Architecture (my profession) and for photography (my passion). I was only responding to the conceptual definitions of 'hobbyist' and 'professional'. Like most concepts, they blend together in real life, but not for CPS Canada.

Nov 07, 2009 at 11:14 PM

keith_cooper
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p.3 #8 · Hobbyist or Professional

Interesting to hear of people's backgrounds.

It's what I do as a living, but I happen to enjoy it a lot too :-)

I know of several 'pro' photographers who have lost some of the pleasures of photography, once they have done it for a living for a while. Not all, by any means, but enough that I have a deliberate policy of limiting the number of 'paying jobs' I'll do in an average week.

My own solution was to only take up photography for a living once I'd solidly sorted out the business side of things - If asked, I run a photography business and happen to take photos as part of it.

Writing my articles/reviews is definitely an enjoyable part of the business too - it actually brings in enough income that I can afford to be a bit more picky in the work I do (all my clients tend to be corporate ones - no weddings/portraits etc)

One other thing, I very rarely book jobs on a Thursday afternoon... It's when I have my piano lessons :-)
No point in running your own business if you can't use it to do things you like :-)

Nov 07, 2009 at 11:58 PM

mh2000
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p.3 #9 · Hobbyist or Professional

Artist. Worst of all possibilities... sell little, show my work in small galleries, do not make a *living* off it.

Nov 08, 2009 at 01:02 AM

Gochugogi
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p.3 #10 · Hobbyist or Professional

Artist. Worst of all possibilities... sell little, show my work in small galleries, do not make a *living* off it.

Actually, half my musician and artist friends fall in that category, as did I until my mid-30s. After that I said the hell with it (grew up too middle class and needed to eat & drive a nice car, etc.) and got a job in academia: teach a few classes and do the artfart stuff on the side as professional improvement and brownie points towards promotion.

Professional hobbyist is also another common niche. I guess that's sorta in the realm of pro beer drinker, pro eater and all around journeyman slacker.

Nov 08, 2009 at 01:16 AM

rprouty
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p.3 #11 · Hobbyist or Professional

It's my job and it's fun..

Nov 08, 2009 at 01:44 AM

XsigmaSD
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p.3 #12 · Hobbyist or Professional

I like to equate it this way...
My neighbor is a master mechanic. By day he works at a dealership, repairs BMWs. Its a job, keeps food on the table, his kid in school, but not a lot of room for creativity. Nights and weekends, he uses the same tools to work on his body-off, painstaking rehab of a 69 Corvette. Same tools and techniques, different end product/goal/passion.

BTW the CABNET he stores his Snap-On brand tool collection in cost more than a new 1DsMkIII.

Nov 08, 2009 at 05:30 PM

mh2000
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p.3 #13 · Hobbyist or Professional

well I grew up too... and make a good living doing other stuff now... still work and show as an artist... just don't have to pin my meals to the dreams of "making it" anymore.

Gochugogi wrote:
Artist. Worst of all possibilities... sell little, show my work in small galleries, do not make a *living* off it.

Actually, half my musician and artist friends fall in that category, as did I until my mid-30s. After that I said the hell with it (grew up too middle class and needed to eat & drive a nice car, etc.) and got a job in academia: teach a few classes and do the artfart stuff on the side as professional improvement and brownie points towards promotion.

Professional hobbyist is also another common niche. I guess that's sorta in the realm of pro beer drinker, pro eater and all around journeyman slacker.

Nov 08, 2009 at 06:13 PM

garyroach
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p.3 #14 · Hobbyist or Professional

Photography has been my main hobby most of my adult life. When I was young I had thoughts of doing photography professionally, but quickly decided to pursue photography only as an amateur. Since then, it's purely been a source of fun for a lifetime.

Nov 08, 2009 at 09:47 PM

Lance Couture
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p.3 #15 · Hobbyist or Professional

David Israel wrote:
While we may be splitting hairs with semantics here, I consider myself more of an "enthusiast" than a hobbyist. I absolutely LOVE photography and think of myself as taking it more seriously than a "hobbiest would." No doubt, some people who consider themselves hobbiest will dispute this, hotly. That being said...

I have been asked many times by people if I ever inteded to sell my images (especially when I shoot HS sports). However, I would never want to rob the pleasure and joy out of my photography by turning it into a job.

Dave

Same here.

I sell enough work to very mildly subsidize my expenditures, but I'm still financially in the red from it However, in terms of what I personally have gotten out of it as well as shots for family and friends, I feel the "red" is a non-issue.

Nov 08, 2009 at 09:59 PM

Breitling65
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p.3 #16 · Hobbyist or Professional

To me photography is same as hunting or fishing to the other people. If I will start selling "fish" daily I will miss fun and enjoyments. But I will sell it if anyone suddenly like big one..

Nov 08, 2009 at 10:07 PM

Rich Swanner
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p.3 #17 · Hobbyist or Professional

I am ......The Timekeeper...........

Nov 09, 2009 at 05:13 AM

LightShow
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p.3 #18 · Hobbyist or Professional

Enthusiast, I keep flip flopping back and forth as to whether or not to start doing this for profit, I'm worried that if I start to do this for money I won't have as much fun.

Nov 09, 2009 at 12:17 PM

Dawud
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p.3 #19 · Hobbyist or Professional

As I have a busy shedule (sometimes I don't shoot a single picture in a month), I really can't commit myself to paid gigs or so.
I also don't like to shoot pictures when someone forces it on to me.

So I'm a hobbyist. (with an expensive taste in glass

)

Nov 09, 2009 at 12:43 PM

jkurkjia
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p.3 #20 · Hobbyist or Professional

Photography has been a hobby for over fifty years.

Regards,

Joe Kurkjian

Nov 09, 2009 at 12:58 PM

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