Do you need a certain quality of equipment to be a professional?

[Lynnzora]

Yeah, one would think that you were just asking for it... posting this topic in this forum. Not because you deserve the negative comments beause if you searched you would've seen the bunch of similar threads that sent newbies off running.... feelings hurt, etc... I can be sensitive too so I just learned what to post and what not to post.

My personal opinion about the topic is this. The quality of your photos is what your pricing should depend on... not the equipment. A 5d may be the nicer camera but give it to a person who has never used a digital camera in their life and they're probably not going to know what to do with it. For example, I shot a graduation for a family member for free and at one point the person was begging for me to get in a picture with me. Reluctantly I hand over my dslr to a family member wondered why the picture was being taken when she just quickly jammed the button in. i explained that she had to slowly squeeze and wait for the camera to focus..... I thought she got it until I got home and saw how blury they all were.... with a FAST lens! I did the same thing with my sister... asked her to take a couple of photos of me with my DSLR, she did but EVERY SINGLE ONE CAME OUT BLURRY! Just an example of the saying that it doesn't matter what camera you have, mostly who's behind the camera.

 

[benlonghair]

A> You cannot be a pro without at least a two Nikon D3s and $12,000 worth of high quality glass.

Damn. What are you shooting? Kids birthday parties? I wanna be a real pro nature photographer. (SFW Lens porn)

Everybody knows it's about gear.

 

[KmH]

.......The quality of your photos is what your pricing should depend on.

That's a sure way to be a starving artist, and there's a bunch out there starvin' or that can't quite figure out how to make the jump from a little extra side income to a full time career.

Actually, the quality of your images is about #6 on the list of things that determine your pricing structure.

Your pricing has to be intimately tied to your Cost Of Doing Business (CODB).

To have a successful full time photography business, you have to be better at running a business, than you are at being a photographer.

 

[Sirene]

Wow a lot of people are saying that this is a useless thread but they sure seem to have a lot of fun in it.