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going amateur

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Do Whatever You Like

Rachel Nabors [https://medium.com/@rachelnabors/dont-do-what-you-love-41312c943e2] (via Austin Kleon [http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/95557908866]) tells us why “Do what you love” is bad advice: > “We hear “do what you love” so often from those few people who it did work for, for whom the stars aligned, and

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There Is No Them

> “There is no ‘them.’” — Patton Oswalt [https://twitter.com/LeChased/statuses/506230219007864832]

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The Snapshot is King

There’s no more damning critique of a photograph than “It’s a snapshot.” This makes no sense to me. Let’s examine what a snapshot is. * Snapshots are usually reserved for family, friends and events, where we’d rather be enjoying ourselves than setting up a tripod. * A snapshot

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Photography is an Act, Not a Profession

Being able to please a client and being able to capture images you’re proud of are two very different things. Making interesting images with a DSLR and making interesting images with your phone are not two very different things. Telling a captivating story without a client or a journalism

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The Perfect Explanation for the Proliferation of Bad Professional Photography

Digging through some quotes I had stored in Evernote, I found this little gem in a tough love article [http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/02/06/how-to-build-a-career-as-an-artist/#] for artists looking to go pro: > “The only difference between artists making money and artists not making money is that the first

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Go Into The Arts Im Not Kidding The Arts Are

> “Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s

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It's Never Been Easier

I replaced the word “writer” with the word “photographer” below, because it really applies to both (or any modern creative profession). This perfectly describes the era we’re living in: > “It’s never been easier to be a [photographer]; and it’s never been harder to be a professional

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Amateur Media Will Win

I’m doing an annual pruning of my photo blog reading list. It’s an audit of the blogs that have been interesting and the blogs that have proved useless. A trend is emerging. I’m getting further away from group blogs, big publications and networks of photographers/writers. I’

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The Pros Do Not Own Photography

But you’d never knew based on the debates they have. This is an actual question appearing on the Society of Publication Designer's website [http://www.spd.org/2013/02/dashwood-books.php], from an interview with David Strettell, and highlighted on the popular A Photo Editor blog [http:

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Pro Photographers Discovering the Advantages of the Amateur

Over on Chase Jarvis’s blog [http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2013/02/3-undeniable-reasons-to-pursue-personal-work-why-being-the-guinea-pig-pays-off-bigtime/] , pro photographer Joey L. lists 3 reasons pursuing personal projects can help even the professional photographer: > You’d be surprised at how many artistic people there are out there who reach a certain level, then