@burnetrhoades I tend to think you take life way to serious. calm down, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that everything is going to be alright.

GMG, are you kidding, this is comic gold right here. Democratization in action. If you're for it, there's something for you here. If you're against it, you'll find what you're looking for as well. Plus, I applaud your huevos for taking an indefensible position and just not letting go. It's almost endearing, lol.

@GravitateMediaGroup i see your point.

Pro foto is not the ABILITY of prossesing raw, as i see in your pictures heavy prossesing and just subjects you have near you.

You may be called in the analog days, an amateur chemist on dark room, experimenting with own paper and prosses of chemicals for diferent looks, and hell they doo look nice in the finished product.

Pro foto is getting paid for capturing images.

Tech this days can make ANYONE take a good picture...but are you getting paid for it?

@endotoxic I'm not calling myself a photographer, and not every picture has heavy processing, the picture of the jet flying sideways had nothing done to it except crop.

could I find paying photography gigs? any day of the week. but it's just a hobby more or less, something I like to do in my spare time.

@vitaliy_kiselev I don't want to turn something I like to do, into something I hate to do. I like to play guitar, but I'm not looking to join a band, if that makes any sense. I have a hobby, I will keep it a hobby. Everyone should have one, even if it's collecting stamps. IF by chance I decided to take up photography as a career, I wouldn't dare charge somebody $2k for 2 hours worth of work, $1k maybe ; )

Also, I don't HAVE to add post processing to any image. It's a look that I like, just as some people prefer to shoot B&W.

@pinger007
LOL a bmcc for a week dilutes your logic

@ahbleza so is she a photographer or not? i'm a little confused. either way, I give her credit for having passion in something, even if she doesn't know everything their is to know about photography,.

@ahbleza bet you weren't expecting that response.

It's so tragic...if only these poor souls had gone to a photographer with a RAW camera...

Being a photographer has almost nothing to do with the camera. It has to do with how you look at the world, your vision and viewpoint and your ability not only to facilitate the kind of situations that make your visual style happen but also your human skills. Not to mention your business skills as an agent, producer, accountant, and bill collector.

In fact as far as I am concerned there is nothing more amateur than believing that you are a photographer based on the camera you shoot or the kind of format you choose.

People don't hire me for my camera, they hire me for my style and the kind of work they think they can get from me that they cannot get elsewhere. This includes my lighting, choice of talent, the way in which I interact with my subjects and my capacity to make choices in art direction as well as later in post production.

There is so much more to being a professional photographer/filmmaker than equipment or technology. Taste and vision count more than Canon or Nikon. Getting the right picture might only take 1/50th of a second, but sometimes 20 years and a million shot frames are needed to recognize it.

@yoclay yeah, but at the end of the the ability to shoot RAW helps to create a nicer finished product.

i'm not disagreeing with anything you said btw. I'm making the claim that RAW has had a major impact in the photography world, and has made it much easier for anybody to jump in, and for some reason folks are finding a hard time to agree with me, but a quick search of the internet will show that the world is full of amateur photographers that are actually taking some pretty nice pictures.

i'm sure 40 years ago there was damn good telephone operators, but now everyone has a smart phone and are pretty good at making calls with them.

@spacewig they may not be "good" writers, but I would says blogs are at an all time high. lol

they may not be good photographs, but I would say photographers are at an all time high as well. insert card, turn on camera, snap snap snap, put card in PC, do what you want "I'm a photographer!" thank you RAW, once again.