What Is a Pro Photographer?
When I first started photography, I was in awe of a lot of professional photographers, and for a lot of reasons. Frankly, I am still in awe of many of them. It’s an amazing accomplishment to make your living that way - not to mention that they frequently produce some unbelievably gorgeous images (hence the ability to make a living at it, right?).
I’ve had plenty of people call me a pro photographer over the years, and I’ve even referred to myself as a pro many times. But when I think of myself in comparison to many other pros that I admire, I don’t feel very “pro”. I feel like a poser. I have serious imposter syndrome about it. I don’t always think of myself as a pro, and certainly not at the level of many pros that I know and admire. I feel like a half pro in some ways. Let’s call it a part-time pro, or a semi-pro. (I’m definitely an “accidental pro”, but that’s another article entirely.)
How do you define “pro”?
That of course has led me to examine my thoughts about this, and to try and answer the question: what makes someone a pro photographer?
Is it earning 100% of your income from photography?
Is it earning more than 50% (the majority) of your income from photography?
Is it working full time at photography, regardless of whether you earn more of your income in other ways (maybe you mostly support yourself with real estate rental income, or something similar; or perhaps you retired from a corporate life and support yourself via savings, investments, and some photography income)?
Is it just the fact that you do earn money from your photography - regardless of how much - which in the traditional definition of things makes you a pro? (“You got paid for it? You’re a pro.”)
Is it that you have a large social media following, or YouTube channel, or popular website dedicated to photography, and make some (or all) of your money that way?
Is it some combination of all of these?
Or is it something else entirely?
The other thing I think about is where/how these pro photographers make their money. In other words, what income streams do they have, and which do they depend on primarily? And more specifically in the context of being a pro, does having your income arise from certain sources make you more pro than if it comes from other sources?
Here are a few sources that come to mind:
Sell prints (landscapes, for example)
Shoot portrait sessions and sell those prints
Shoot weddings and sell those prints
License their images for corporate use (websites, marketing campaigns, etc)
Sell courses and other digital products (presets, textures, etc)
Publishing photography books (visual, instructional, etc)
Earn affiliate commissions from recommending products
Sell NFT images
Get hired for commercial work
Social media ads and sponsorships
I am sure there are plenty of others that I’m not considering at the moment. The truth is, there are a lot of ways to earn a living with photography. Do some make you think “that’s a pro” more than others?
The sliding scale of “pro-ness”
At this point I am honestly not sure how to define it, but I think many would agree that if you earn 100% of your income from photography, you qualify. If that’s the case, you can call yourself a pro without question. I can’t imagine anyone would dispute that. However I do think that some would consider certain revenue sources more “pro like” than other revenue sources, but that is just a guess. I’m on the fence regarding my own feelings on that one.
Anything below that 100% level starts to enter sort of a sliding scale, at least in my view. You can be called a full time, working pro if that’s all you do. But you can also be called a semi-pro or part-time pro if you don't earn your income fully from photography, or don’t work at it full time, but still earn a respectable income from it (and no, I am not sure how to define respectable in this example). Below that it slides further and further away from “pro status”.
I’m Not Really a Pro…I Guess?
So truthfully, I do not qualify as a pro, because I have a day job. Sure, I make money from my photography, every month, and in several ways listed above, but it’s not 100% of my income. It’s not really even close, to be honest. I have a day job that earns the majority of my yearly income. But I have earned money over the years via a lot of the different methods I mentioned above, and in some years it has been pretty respectable, even approaching “full time income” status a few times.
I also have a decent-sized social media audience, a reasonably sized YouTube channel, pretty solid traffic on my website and a solid audience subscribed to my newsletter. Those are “pro things” to some extent, and I know firsthand that some of those things are larger for me than for some of the “full time working pros” that I admire and/or know (and smaller than plenty of others, too - just to keep it honest here).
And to be clear, I’m not judging here - just stating a fact. Another fact is that they work full time as a photographer, earning their full income or the majority of it from their art, and I do not - so there’s that. In other words, your ability to support yourself with your art is not directly attributed to your follower count on any particular platform (although it can obviously help). I have seen plenty of examples where these two diverge widely.
But despite my “non-pro” status, I have achieved some “pro-level” successes:
I’ve sold large prints that hang in luxury homes.
I’ve licensed images to countless businesses over the years for lots of purposes: calendars, brochures, websites and more. I even licensed images to a tourist board in Europe and those images were printed on souvenirs and sold in gift shops.
I’ve had my work published on the cover of a literary journal, and the Visitor’s Guide to Austin one year.
I’ve been paid to help lead multiple workshops in international locations.
I’ve presented and taught at industry trade shows, conferences, and events.
I’ve done webinars sponsored by well-known brands in the photography industry.
I’ve had companies sponsor some of my Youtube videos. (I’ve turned down way more sponsorships than I have accepted though.)
I’ve had companies send me gear to review, such as lenses, backpacks and tripods - not to mention gobs of software.
I’ve earned a respectable amount of money from my photography business each year over the last 7-8 years.
In other words, I’ve done a lot of things that most would consider only a pro would be able or invited to do.
These are all “pro level” sorts of things, right? But if a “true” pro earns 100% of their income from photography, then I’m not a pro. And I’m ok with that. Someday I will earn 100% of my income from my photography. It’s just not today.
By the way, I try not to get too caught up in these definitions - I’m just curious what others think about this stuff.
Parting Thoughts
It sounds like a dream to be a fully self-supported artist, earning 100% of your income from your art. I have done it for long stretches of time over the last ~9 years (I’ve taken a few breaks from Corporate America, basically, and worked full time at building my photography business during that time, but have always returned to Corporate America for various reasons) and while it is amazing and freeing, it’s also full of constant worry about my earnings.
It’s hard to earn a consistent and comfortable income from photography. It’s stressful and there is no single, clear path to success. There’s no guaranteed income. There’s no formula for this. Everyone walks their own road and either figures it out, or doesn’t. I’m still trying to determine my path, and I’m still figuring it out. I love it, but it’s not easy. And I admire the hell out of those who have figured it out for themselves. That’s damn impressive.
I create my art and try to do my best work, and then share it with the world. After that, it’s essentially beyond my control. If it’s received well or poorly, I did what I could do at the time, and I am proud of it. I let it go, and hope it serves a purpose (for you and me). Then I go back and work on the next thing. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s a continual process and I love it. Someday it will be all that I do. But right now, it’s ok that it isn’t. Good things take time, right?
How do you define a pro photographer?
