You get paid to do what others can’t or won’t do. Maybe they don’t have the time, maybe they don’t have the tools or maybe they don’t have the know-how. In any case, if someone can do what you do, they won’t pay you to do the same thing.
This means that a professional photographer should have better tools, better production values and better abilities and more creativity than their competition and even their customers. But this is not always the case.
An amateur photographer, and maybe even a customer, might own the same or better tools than a professional photographer. An amateur might have the same creativity and ability as a professional.
But amateurs always fail when it comes to experience and reliability.
How many pro sporting events has an amateur covered? How many royal tours? How many heads of state? How many CEOs and company presidents? How many assignments in bad light? How many assignments that happened so fast, only a few pictures were possible? How many amateurs know how to handle themselves, and the situation around them, when events happen too quickly or unpredictably?
The key selling point for any professional photographer is their experience and reliability. Experience means that a professional is able to say, “Yes, I know what picture is needed here and I know what to do to get that photo.”
Professional photographers run their own business. Who’s better to produce business photography, a photographer who runs a business or an amateur whose day job is elsewhere?
If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.
– Chinese Proverb
Customers often learn the value of experience and reliability only after they’ve used an amateur or cheap photographer. It’s always a costly lesson but it’s also a valuable experience.
