This week we looked at business basics and writing up business plans. We also touched briefly on copyright law. The practical aspects of working within the photographic industry were discussed alongside the various careers within the photography industry, as well as discussion around what it means to be a professional photographer in the industry today.

Scott Grant (2014) in his book identifies three types of professional photographer:

• High end professional photographer – high end professional clients across many genres, high financial reward.
• General professional photographer – clients across many genres from a less prestigious client base, lower financial reward, photographers tend to be from an art or academic background, aspire to becoming a high end professional photographer.
• Domestic professional photographer – work in commercial photography for weddings, events, portraits and is not commissioned, usually self taught, regionally based and rely on constantly finding new clients.

I am not yet earning significant income from photography so I do not consider myself to be a professional photographer at this point, although I would like this to be a future prospect. I would aspire to freelance work as a general professional photographer and have an interest in social-documentary photography, architecture and cityscape photography, and the creation of photography books. Although, there are many other careers to be considered in the photographic industry, I am primarily interested in the photography itself. The challenge will be to succeed in a highly competitive industry in a digital age.

Reference: Grant, Scott, Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (2014), CRC Press, p. 5