What is a photographer

What is a photographer? This is a question that I ask myself allot, it is an interesting question to think about because there is a vast array of answers to this question. It is so difficult to answer because to me photography is not just about pressing a shutter release a few times and looking at the shots later to fish for a workable image. A photographer is not someone with fancy gear or someone that is getting paid to take a picture for a yearbook because they have a fancy camera. A photographer is someone that has the capability to effectively use a light sensitive surface to paint with light, paint an image that they knew they were going to make. To me photography is like painting, and if you think about what painting is you can understand what I think it means to be a photographer. A painter can imagine something and know what they want to paint and use a paintbrush and canvas to make their imagination a reality. A photographer is someone who can make their imagination a reality using A light sensitive service as their medium. Different photographers have different views on what makes a photographer though, some people might just say that a photographer is someone that knows how to physically operate a camera manually, some people might say that it is someone that can predict moments that are about to happen and effectively take a portrait of someone on the street. others will say that it is someone that can read light and know how to deal with it, others care more about post processing in the wet lab or digital lab or even just someone actively using any form of camera to document.  all of these are ideal reasons to call yourself a photographer. Me being a studio photographer I view light as my paintbrush and know exactly what I want and how I am going to achieve the image I want, this also keeps me from taking images I would have otherwise taken as I already know what an image will look like and judge based on my views if I want to take it or not. A good photographer is a problem solver.