The internet would love to tell you what a real photographer is. I’ve collected the rules over the years, and I’d like to share them so you can ignore them efficiently.
Rule one: a real photographer shoots manual. Always. If your camera dares to make a decision, you’re basically a tourist. Never mind that every working pro I know uses aperture priority half the time. Rules are rules.
Rule two: a real photographer shoots RAW. JPEG is for cowards and people with social lives. You must spend your evenings hunched over sliders, recovering highlights from a photo of a parking lot, because that’s what Ansel Adams would have wanted. Probably.
Rule three: a real photographer has opinions about sensors that nobody else can hear. You must be able to detect banding at ISO 51,200 in a blind test, or turn in your camera strap.
Rule four: a real photographer looks down on zoom lenses, phone photographers, film simulation recipes, tripods (too easy), and anyone having visible fun.
Here’s the actual truth, and it’s free: a real photographer takes pictures. That’s the whole list. You point a camera at the world on purpose, repeatedly, because you can’t not do it. Everything else is costume.
I shoot JPEG. I let the camera do math sometimes. I have a favorite film simulation and I am not ashamed. (Okay, slightly ashamed.) I own cameras from four different decades and the only test I run is: does it take good pictures? If yes, it stays. If no, it goes on a shelf where I can admire the industrial design and feel nothing.
The gatekeeping comes from insecurity, and I say that with love, because I was insecure once too. When you’re new, rules feel like a ladder. Then one day you realize the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall, and the people at the top are just arguing about ladders.
So watch the video, say thank you, and then go take some pictures with whatever you’ve got. The real photographer committee meets never, and you’re already a member.
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