this^
Im gonna sound like a complete "hipster" and all that jazz, feel free to skip over this following rant. But i go to a fairly small school in a city that has no culture or art appreciation what so ever, the most popular past time is going to the casino and bowling leagues, (i.e where i go to high school fucking sucks). anyways, i've always been interested in photography as long as i can remember, I've always read (or looked at) Nat Geo mags when i was real little, saying "i wanted to be a National Geographic Photographer" and whatnot. When i 1st started getting into taking pictures myself (around 15 years old, i got a lil kodak point n' shoot for christmas) Some people saw them, thought they were cool and whatnot, cuz no one else took pictures "for fun" in the whole school. And from there one can only advance, learning new stuff, buying new equipment and becoming one with your camera. I do it for myself, i feel like i need to, or else i wont feel the freedom that it entails. Fast foward almost 3 years later, theres now around 10 or more "professional photographers" in the school who have they're own fan page and watermarks, when they're only marketing tool is the shiit they post on FB every 20 minutes. (And i am not saying my stuff is good, but i do it for my own souls fulfillment, not how many likes i can get on fb.)
Sorry for the useless rant, it just kinda pisses me off for someone to label them self as a photographer just because you own a camera.
