If almost anyone can afford a decent digital SLR camera + lens, what is it we/you’re selling as a person trying to make a living–or, at least, a partial income–from photography?

Well, one thing you’re not selling–at least not in an “exclusive” way–is the ability to generate photos or digital images; almost anyone can do this now. And even some of the lower-end digital SLR camera models can generate quite usable images for stock, weddings, and/or portraiture.

And since digital makes possible immediate and/or almost immediate review of images taken, even amateurs can be quite sure whether they’re getting good, properly exposed images or not. So, it’s more difficult to make the case that you need a professional photographer to make sure the camera equipment is producing images that look good from a technical standpoint. I’m pretty sure no one would want to hire a true novice in this regard, but the learning curve has certainly flattened out.

Now, being able to “operate” the equipment does not assure great photos, right? I don’t think anyone would argue with this. However, having equipment that is better than a compact/point-and-shoot digital camera can certainly help *anyone* make better photos….especially if they’re photographing moving targets or photographing in places with low light; it’s in these two areas that compact/point-and-shoot camera often come up short.

One area that I think still requires quite a bit of technical mastery to get right is the use of flash and external lighting for indoor–especially dark indoor–photography. Purely “natural light” practitioners will often run into difficulties at dark, nighttime and/or indoor receptions.  Having a professional for such events can make a significant difference in the quality of the photos.

Now, even though I’ve downplayed the importance of equipment, the more expensive professional equipment does make *some* difference in terms of image quality, focusing speed, and ability to take photos in lower light. This is especially true for indoor events. The more expensive equipment *will* yield a higher percentage of “keepers”, all other factors being equal.

Okay, now for the sake of argument, let’s say the event is purely outdoors and the difference in image quality and focusing speed between the consumer camera equipment and the professional equipment isn’t significantly noticeable to the client. What’s left?

It’s that “photographic eye” thing, right? That thing that tells the photographer what to take a photo of and what the client sees as the intangible “thing” that makes a photo good and/or pleasing, right?

Well, the trouble is that many budding photographers have–or claim to have, or maybe their friend or spouse claims they have it–that “photographic eye”. This is not exclusive to professional photographers. In fact, some professional photographers may have lost that “eye” because they’ve taken too many hundreds or thousands of photos and have become “desensitized image factories”!

Some of that “eye” thing may be related to the amount of enthusiasm the photographer still has for the art of photography. Beginners often have lots of this enthusiasm and it sometimes can make up for what they lack in photographic experience.

In actuality, professional photographers often go through fluctuations in enthusiasm; it’s usually not a static “have” or “not have” commodity. It comes and goes like it does with any long-term activity pursued by a human.

Really, I think it’s *not* the photographic eye, per se, that you’re paying the professional for; even a good amateur should have that. With a professional, what you’re paying for, is a well-established photographic vision. Whereas an amateur photographer is typically experimenting with different styles, viewpoints, post-processing, etcetera…a professional has found his or her strength and developed it to a high degree.

When you hire a professional photographer, the photos s/he delivers will be *very* similar to the sample portfolios and galleries s/he has shown you. There’s a consistency in vision that the photographer has carried out over and over. You, as the customer, know and can be sure of what you’ll get when you hire this photographer. This photographer has shown s/he will deliver consistently and what the end product will look like. If you, as the customer, like what you see, you can be quite sure you’ll get the results you want when you hire this photographer.

So, photographers, what are we selling? A well-established photographic vision.

Does this mean a professional photographer can’t experiment like an amateur can? No, I don’t think that’s the case. Even the professional’s “experimentations” will carry his or her signature vision or style. S/he can’t get away from this vision or style; it’s who s/he is as an established photographer…:-).

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