Every now and then, usually at volleyball tournaments, somebody will tell me that my works looks "professional". I'm sure they mean it as a compliment, but I don't usually take it that way. Most people equate 'professional' to 'good', but not me.

What does it mean to be a professional? A professional is someone whose ability to make their mortgage payment (or pay their rent) is dependent on their ability to generate revenue from their photography (I realize this is debatable, this is the definition I prefer however). Generally speaking of course if you aren't good then you aren't going to last too long as a professional. Due to the increasingly low barriers (both financial and skill) to enter photography, there have been a recent explosion of "professionals". Professionals that it would seem have their revenue subsidized by their parents or spouses who do something else to generate revenue

Let me be clear. I am no professional. I hope I never am either. When I am conceptualizing a photograph, I don't ever want to have to factor in "will I make enough money to eat this month". And that's something that happens to professionals. Absolute quality is sacrificed in the name of work flow improvments. If you can achieve 95% percent of the quality by only investing 50% of the time would you do it? Maybe. What if it was the difference between making rent? Definitely.

My sports photography is in many ways the exact opposite of what the professionals are trying to do. When shooting volleyball I employ techniques that have a ridiculously low keeper rate. Sometimes I don't get a single decent image during an hour long match. I would rather quickly go bankrupt if I relied on this. Or I would have to change my technique to something that sacrificed absolute quality for more usable photos. And I don't want to do that.