Do you dream about earning money with your hobby (I mean, naturally, photography)? An interesting, but sometimes disputable article I’ve found in the Internet.

It seems that just about everyone is a photographer. The line between amateur enthusiast and professional is fuzzy to say the least….

Indeed, you may bought a good DSLR for $500 and such camera may produce enough good shots, even for hi-quality polygraphy.

Photography enthusiasts are selling their images through stock libraries and microstock websites, directly to magazines or through their own and third party sites. They’re accepting commissions to shoot weddings, being hired to shoot for magazines and selling fine art prints from their websites. They’re teaching photography on the weekend and guiding photographic holidays and safaris.

Not all ideas are good for me, but as starting point for some enthusiasts it fits.

Companies and organisations that previously employed professional photographers to shoot their brochures, directors’ portraits for annual reports and images for corporate magazines now increasingly rely on the ubiquitous staff member who is a photography enthusiast, a dab hand in Photoshop and has the latest digital SLR…. The quality of photography in corporate brochures and magazines is often appalling and the trade press is not much better. To keep costs down they often rely on advertisers and PRs to provide images. Out come the company photo enthusiast’s pictures again. And nobody seems to notice or mind.

That’s absolutely true! Most of photos in corporate issues are under the level of any criticism. Another hand, photographer’s salary is not very high

A professional photographer in the UK earns an average of £19K per year. I’ve just had a look on some job websites and seen adverts for photographers at a national chain of portrait studios. The advertised salary, £12K per year ie not that much above minimum wage.

FYI: £19000=US$37400

And, finally:

What are the differences between an enthusiast and a pro? The enthusiast takes pictures because they want to and they like it. The pro takes photographs to put food on the table.

Do you really want such lifestyle? IMO, for most of people staying in their occupation is preferrable. Anyway, I prefer to capture what and when I want.

Full article you may read here