I like the comments regarding the "Superiority" of the Pro's, do you lot think most pro's picked up a camera yesterday, because that's how it comes across, I was a hobby photographer for twenty years plus before I decided to make a career out of this game. Being older meant assisting was pretty much out of the question, I could hand print black n white but had no experience with colour hand printing, I enrolled in college and for two years learnt as much as I could.
A good portfolio is important to clients, but knowing how you get a good portfolio is equally important, before college, like several here my knowledge came from reading and shooting, some things were still confusing, college tidied these issues up in my case, my portfolio improved. A good portfolio does not come from shooting millions of shots to pick out the 12 or so good ones, think about the shot before you press the shutter release, plan the shoot and take what you need, I don't shoot a thousand at a wedding, I don't need to, I also don't need the extra work involved in PP, what I do need is a ninety percent capture rate, my knowledge gets me this, I shoot accordingly.
Critique, no-one likes it, I rarely give it, but see posters who were asking which camera to buy 3 months back, giving out big stick, usually wrong or at best confused, then others who never say what is wrong, totally unhelpful. If you don't want or can't take critique don't ask for it. In two years college every single image I submitted was given critique, over colour mostly, the reason was to train a students eye, even though my colour vision is fine the brain compensates for casts, so knowing what your looking for is the key.
A lot of those with experience decided to leave due to being flamed by inexperienced newbs, who, like the majority of this internet breed, think they know it all after being on a few fora or having read some amateur photography mag and went out and bought their consumer SLR, this was a grave loss to the forum so if your willing to learn shut up and take the crit in the way its meant, so you learn from mistakes, and, if you have little experience, also shut up, as the confusion spread by those who don't understand the written word very well is also detrimental to the forum as a whole.
Pro's have no superiority complex because they shoot with Pro spec cameras, have suffered the education system or any other reason, cameras are cameras, knowledge is about learning from mistakes and not making them again, if imparting some of that knowledge upsets ten people and teaches one person something of value then that's a success.
I look in here every day, see all kinds of posts talking of white balance, when its actually a colour cast, totally different things, unless the cast is caused by not using a filter with film or white balance correction in camera when shooting under artificial light. Then there's the multitude of posts referring to blown highlights on someones shot when the numpty is sat looking at a laptop screen or cheap uncalibrated monitor, these are just two instances where two words can help. Shut Up. Then, as others have already mentioned, its the shot of the sidewalk/tomato/oof anything, you don't want critique on these, the recycle bin is the only remedy, bin it and shoot something of interest before showing it off on the net.
My final say on this lot, is that just because you have a few lucky shots under your belt lets refrain from calling yourselves Photographers, building websites containing ten images and calling yourselves names like "creative photography" or other such $hit while asking the most simple questions on sites like this, your simply not such and such photography, your simply another camera user till your knowledge expands considerably, remember if you can't CONSISTENTLY produce images like those you show prospective clients, YOU ARE NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER. H
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