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Thinking Professionally, Shooting Like an Amateur

By Wayne Cosshall

I teach photography workshops. I also effectively teach through my writings here and at Digital ImageMaker. And I also do public speaking on photography at camera clubs, libraries and the like. These activities, combined with my years of editing professional photography magazines, have allowed me to spend a lot of time talking to both amateur and professional photographers.

Amateurs and professionals are very different beasts. Amateurs can do whatever they want without the need to sell what they do. They can chop and change their focus (pun intended) as the mood suits them. Professionals must please their clients, even if that means doing work that they, themselves, don’t overly like. Although the conventional wisdom is that amateurs can learn a lot from pros, it actually works both ways.

In the time I have spent interviewing professional photographers I have come across many who have lost touch with what got them excited about photography in the first place. They have become jaded and tired. It is now just a job. And of course it is. It puts food on the table and roofs over their families’ heads.

But if it is only a job, how will they maintain the creative spark that makes their work stand out in a crowded and highly competitive marketplace? How will they keep their sanity as well?

Creative people can, in my experience, be perhaps more prone to depression than less creative types, especially when they are not creating. So professional photographers need to find a way to keep their creative juices flowing. One way to do this is to allocate some amount of time to shoot purely for themselves with absolutely no idea of selling the images. That may happen down the road, but selling the images shouldn’t be the first thing that comes to mind.. Personal projects are essential. They provide some structure, some motivation.

Amateurs are often immensely undisciplined. They waft from one subject to another on a whim and their spouses are often critical that they bought gear that excites them for a month and then sits unused. Amateurs sometimes work on something for awhile, but when getting the results they want becomes too hard, they move on.

Thus, what amateurs sometimes need is discipline. They need the discipline to push a piece of gear as far as they possibly can before even thinking about something new. Discipline to keep pushing for results that may be hard to achieve but, once they break through, will move their work to a whole new level. And discipline to keep themselves on track despite what others may say.

Of course these examples are broad generalities, and don’t apply to all amateurs nor all professionals. But they do illustrate my point that not only can an amateur learn from a professional, but that a professional can also learn some things from the amateur.

I can think of other examples. Amateurs sometimes have very deep technical knowledge in a particular area because they can. The pro may stop learning a particular subject as soon as they know enough to get by with it in their work.

A pro often has a more critical eye because they have needed to develop one. Pros must identify issues and correct them before a picky client spots them. Amateurs can be sloppy in their self-assessment and can benefit from the pro’s eyes. And so it goes on.

As in other areas where there are both amateurs and professionals, such as astronomy, each can learn and benefit from the others. All that’s needed is an open mind.
Posted 10-31-2008 1:52 AM by Eileen Fritsch
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