The difference between an amateur and a professional photographer

Good morning . It's 5:30 a.m. up here on Walch's Mountain and All's well.

A few days ago my grand daughter asked me what the difference between an amateur and a professional photographer was. A very astute question for an eleven year old budding photographer. I asked that same question when I was only a few years older and was told by a very wise old professional photographer that, in most cases, the only difference between a good amateur photographer and a professional photographer is that the professional gets paid for doing what they love to do while the amateur doesn't get paid for doing what they love to do. That was a very astute observation but getting paid for doing what one loves to do isn't always easy, at least not at first. This is especially true when we are talking photography.

Selling stock photos through online stock photo agencies is one of the easiest ways to get paid for doing what you love to do. The great thing about doing stock photography is that you get to choose when you work, where you work, and what you photograph. There are stock agencies that specialize in people pictures, animal pictures, landscape pictures, architectural pictures, business pictures, etc, as well as general stock agencies that handle all types of stock pictures. You'll never get rich selling stock photography but it does pay you to do what you would have done anyway and it is a way to build up that all important portfolio that you will need to get high paying assignments. For a complete list of stock photo agencies with an online presence go to profoto.com.