Amateur Professionals, or Professional Amateurs?

A picture is worth a thousand words - an old adage which is growing in increasing relevance in the age of social media. With the growth of Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube has come an increased desire for sharper images - images that require the average person to wield expensive professional grade equipment. It's this flow on effect that has the professional photography industry in a spin - on one hand, there is less need for their services; on the other, the everyday person now believes they too can make money out of their new toys.

Since this facilitates an increase in questionable pseudo-professionals, are the real professional photographers at risk of receiving less and less work over the years? Even with the upsrise of Instagram, anyone from a beginner to professional level standard is able to not only post photos simply snapped from their mobile phone - high resolution images can also be uploaded to their own profiles if they wanted to promote their work in a socially trendy and high quality way.

There are three tiers of cameras that the typical person is drawn to these days and while they do overlap each other's capacities to some degree, each tier gives a clear indiciation of the person's knowledge and intent.


Canon G12/P6000 (Nikon) buyers are those who know what they are doing and want a capable but small alternative to carring their full kit around all the time. As I've been told, it holds the proficiency of a DSLR but at the size of a point and shoot - small things can pack a punch sometimes.

Mirrorless is the average person who wants the increased visual capacity but have no desire to lug the full bulk of a DSLR.

All of the social media sharing and adhoc professional proliferation has allowed for a growing but glaring misconception of photographers  - that equipment is king. There are those out there who will have you believe that simply having a 5D MkIII with an L series lens is the instantaneous key to visual brilliance, neglecting the need for practice and skill.

These self appointed 'professionals' have their belief cemented by a few friends and relatives hitting 'like' on any and every image they choose to upload.
While some of this cohort do make an effort to learn, they continue to base the bulk of their confidence and professionalism on the equipment afforded to them by a good pay check or high credit limit. What does this mean for us? Do you feel that our profession is at risk by these factors?