(Subtitle: "So You Think You Have the Chops to Sell Your Skills Professionally? Ha!")
I took some family photos recently with my D200. Set up the tripod, compose the shot, check the settings and "Wham!" I wanted to gauge my quality so I sent the shots to a professional-grade lab, not Sam's Photo Lab as I have been wont to do in the past. I feel like it turned out OK, but there wasn't anything magical about the images, so I was a tad disappointed.
While at the lab, I picked up a newsletter for a local professional photographers guild. There were a couple of columns in it I wanted to read. One, written by the president of the guild, was brutal. In it he recalled a phone call from a prospective photographer who asked his opinion of his work. He let him have it, with both barrels, criticizing his images in the most thorough and brutal (sorry to repeat, but the word is appropos) fashion.
Wanting to embark on a semi-pro career as a photographer, wanting to make myself available for work that should come along, I am thoroughly self-conscious that it will not be up to par, even for a bargain photographer. I'm hoping that this fear of failure pushes me to improve to the point that it is up to par.
A suggestion this guild president makes is that pro photog wannabes align themselves with a group of professionals who can offer quality guidance and meaningful critiques of their work. Sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if I'm up for such a beating. We'll see.
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