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Features

The Definitive Step by Step Guide on How to Be a Photographer (A Real Photographer)

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 09/01/2017
10/18/2017
1 Min read
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Every photographer needs to start somewhere. And one of the biggest things that people don’t understand is the answer to the question “What makes someone a photographer?” Technically, everyone is a photographer these days. But not everyone is a professional photographer. So with that in mind, consider that a professional photographer is one that makes at least 50% of their taxable income as a photographer and from selling images or selling their photographic services.

Now here’s how you do that.

Buy a Camera and a Lens. The Most Expensive Ones You Can

Buy a Photo Vest

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Buy More Gear

A black Nikon DSLR camera with a lens rests on top of a closed book with a red and white cover.

Use Gear

Read Ken Rockwell

Go Buy a Leica

Go Demoralize Other Photographers on Reddit and Petapixel in the Comments

Post Nudes on 500px (In Wide Color Gamuts)

Go Complain on DPReview

Give Up on Leica, Canon and Nikon; Then Go Buy a Fuji or a Sony

Read DXOMark and Realize Your Camera is Crap

Buy Pentax

Do Craigslist Gigs With Gear

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canon fujifilm How-to Ken Rockwell nikon pentax photographer Photography professional real photographer sony
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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