RE: [Leica] Pro or no

[Paul Chefurka <Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Martin Howard [mailto:howard.390@osu.edu]
>
>I am not a beleiver of the old saying: get paid for doing what 
>you do anyway.  It doesn't happen.  You'll get paid for doing,
>not what you are already doing, but for doing other things.

As an ex-pro, I'll throw in my two cents worth.  I agree with Ted about
everything except the "getting paid for what you would do anyway".  On that
issue I side emphatically with Martin.

I started out as an amateur, and went pro in about '72.  Five years later I
was bankrupt and burned out.  Bankrupt from not having someone like Ted to
warn me how essential the business and marketing side of the equation is,
and burned out from not having someone like Martin to warn me about the cost
to my soul of shooting too many baby portraits, weddings, cans of bug spray
and grip 'n grins.  I was in a small market with a number of established
photogs, without enough business or marketing sense, no fallback income, and
not enough startup capital.  Believe me, doing it wrong is no fun at all.

Paul Chefurka