Where do you consider yourself to be?

When you look at your experience, your ability to sell your work, and your schooling, where do you consider yourself to be in the world of Photography.

As I mentioned in the Shoot Something White thread, I am self-taught. I am completely aware that there are big gaps in my knowledge, but I am learning every day. My coworkers joke about how I have a different photography book in my hand every time they see me in the lunchroom, ha ha. However, book learning is a poor substitute for practice, and I try to do that as often as my 10-hour work days allow (my coworkers hide now when I bring in my camera  ). When my husband is downstairs watching another "300 ways this person could've died" TV show, I go upstairs and practice with Photoshop, or, if it's still light out, I'll go outside and shoot rocks, twigs, the neighbor's dog, etc.  I would love to have personal instruction, but in a town of 700, that's not happening anytime soon.

So...where do I consider myself? I have sold my nature/wildlife work, and strangers are paying me to do portraits of their kids and engagements. I refuse to do weddings, no matter how hard they ask (I turned down 5 in one month!), because I am nowhere near ready for that kind of responsibility. I would consider myself at an "apprentice level". I do think I have an eye for composition, but my technical knowledge has a long way to go.

How about you?

I've taken classes for a long time, 7 years maybe? And I practice when I can. But there is still so much that I don't know, and can't figure out how to explain to people that I don't know it, so they can answer it. I know the basics, I think that I've got an eye for composition, but I also know there are a lot of things I miss. I think I'm still a beginner...to a point. I've never made money doing this, and in some cases would feel very inadequate asking people to pay me for it. But I think that I could do portraits without too much stress. I've had more practice on that than anything, and have gotten the most positive feedback from those who's pictures I've taken.

I was trying to come up with a way to say the same thing, but I'll just go with what Bob said.  The "I know everything I need to know and am better than anyone else" level is where you don't want to be.  It doesn't matter how good a shot is, there's always something that can be improved upon. 

not to me..

Working professional puts you in an area of photography where the bar is much higher. You can't refuse a shoot because you think the bride is not going to be fun. Even though you are probably a business manager first and photographer second, trying to constantly improve when you know you can make the same money doing nothing new puts you in the higher ranks of "levels" [grin]

See now, I think anyone can charge for their photography.  Why would you say "oh I am not good enough to charge".  Let people decide that for themselves.  Be fair and tell them your level, but charge what you want, if they don't like your work they won't pay for it, plain and simple.  If they do like it you benefit and so do they.  People value what they pay for (that's the biggest secret you can learn). 
The key is to not get in over your head.  Don't make promises when you may not be able to deliver.  Just be honest and you won't run into trouble

Excellent points Susie and Marian.

It's been said over and over again, "It is far better to shadow/assist the primary photographer for weddings then to go at it without having experience."
I would rather not cover a wedding, though, I do like to assist and be a second photographer.
I don't know if Ed Shapiro's  notes on weddings have been resurrected, however, they were great information/teachings. 

Well, I am pretty good with numbers and the technical stuff.  But I'm no good at anything else that matters.  I'm still in the "Learning" class too.

I told Susie once that I thought if I could get all the technical stuff down well enough that I could quit worrying about it and just focus on the creative and business side of photography; that I'd someday be good.  I actually stated that if I could just focus on the creative portion of my images and get good at them (because the technical would be second nature) I could maybe do this professionally.  Her comment was, "Well then you'd be the perfect photographer".  So that's my goal...  Now I just have to finish getting all the technical stuff memorized so I can start being creative.  I figure that will only be about 80 years from now .

Travis

More often than I like to admit, I use the SSC method of technical adjustment...

Set-Shoot-Chimp [grin]