As an alternative view to yesterday’s popular post, there’s nothing wrong with being an amateur.
I’m an amateur soccer player, an amateur cook, an amateur skier, designer, racecar driver, and flyfisherman. And I’m happy to be an amateur at all of those things. Actually I LOVE being an amateur at all of those things – it allows me to dabble, make a ton of mistakes, goof around, drop the ball, not care when something else might be distracting me etc.
Being an amateur at those things means I can be comfortable. It’s safe. There is no fear of success or failure. In each case actually becoming a professional overnight at ANY of those things above SOUNDS fun to me, but I know enough that the process of going pro at my hobbies above does NOT sound fun. The workload is too great, the road too steep. The path sounds too damn hard and the rewards don’t outweigh the effort enough to dedicate my life to it.
Being an amateur is the opposite of going pro. Going pro is….…uncomfortable, challenging, and requires laser focus. That’s not to say it’s not incredibly rewarding, but you catch my drift. Going “amateur” is cush.
Now if you’re out there wondering if you have what it takes to be a pro photographer, dancer, chef, whatever and this thought of keeping it amateur sounds the least bit tempting – stick to being an amateur. Someone who has what takes to be a pro and wants to do it would likely never be tempted by such a proposal.
Which one are you? Be the judge for yourself.
“Being an amateur at those things means I can be comfortable. It’s safe. There is no fear of success or failure.”
In some cases, I guess this can be a definition of amateur, but it doesn’t completely hold for my approach. I did not make money as a horseperson. Did that mean I did not invest as much energy, angst, money, time, perfectionism, love, and loyalty in it (for longer than most people stay at one job much less profession) as I did in my stated profession – if not more? That goes for anything I have devoted myself to for any length of time. If I have made a commitment to something I tend to put the same energy into it, with the same expectations (and disappointments) of effort and appropriate output to my level of learning, as I do in my profession. I just don’t get paid.
Do I dabble? Sure. Do I move from dabbling on to more of a commitment? Yeah, that’s where I am with photography now. However I don’t even consider myself an amateur at this point. I’m only about 18 months into it. I’m still on a majorly steep learning curve. When that starts to level off a little and I’m still committed – then that’s when I consider myself involved enough to put a label on it – to be an amateur. When I start thinking, “Can I PLEASE still call myself a beginner, please???” then I know I’m in deep.
Do you still have personal, amateur-ish, non commercial photo projects?
My 2 cents,
Being a Pro… : you KNOW what you are doing
Amateur: You LOVE what are doing
and you forgot one thing: being an amateur you can buy every lense / body you want just for fun, while being pro you end to buy things that you need to work and to get $.
Cute series of posts. Can’t wait to see what comes next!