Stutterfly

Being a live music photographer, yes. I get stuff thrown at me by the crowd behind me, musicians in front (sometimes on purpose I'm sure) Security step on me, other photos step on me, trip over gear/cables, audience members jumping the barrier...

The short answer is that selling images too cheaply devalues photography.

Using wedding photography as an example:

8hrs of shooting, plus many hours of culling and processing.

Joe Bloggs is a shoot and burner who charges $300 for a disc of images for a wedding. He has a day job, this is just a hobby, so $300 sounds pretty great to him. He may or may not be good. Doesn't matter really.

Professional Photgrapher sells wedding packages from $2000. This his business, his life and he takes it very seriously.

So how does the Professional Photographer compete with Joe Bloggs? Obviously some will be able to see the difference in quality, but you know what? Lots of people can't.

If you are just starting out, work out your pricing (the hours you spend, what you're worth) and discount it while your are portfolio building. Let people know that it is a discounted rate for PBing.

Yup... everyone and his dog (no pun intended... considering the forum I'm posting this in :p) has a DSLR and kit lenses. Some can even take decent photos. Then they start a Facebook page or website and offer wedding packages at a fraction of the price a pro can do it for.

I'm not in the wedding business, but I am a pro. People are always offering to do what I do, for free...it greatly diminished my chances of being paid, because like you said, many can't tell the difference.

I have both. A Nikon D90 and a Nikon D700.

I still use the D90, but a lot. The D700 has far superior low-light (high ISO) performance.

I don't have a dog, but I do work in a shop. Twice now, we've had customers with a puppy. One was a 'regular' and he had a tiny mini foxie pup about his person. My boss saw my reaction and said to me "You have 5 minutes" I then proceeded to cuddle and coo to the little darling for...well closer to 10 minutes really. The owner actually brought him back the next day. I think for my benefit My shop is adjacent to an exit in the Hyperdome, and there's a pet store in here, so no one cared. Also we don't sell food. The other time it was an itty bitty pug baby. It was so freaking cute. Apparently it's owners were on the way back from NSW, where they had collected the pup from it's breeder.

I LOVE when people bring animals in. I love animals. I know pet shops are bad and all that, but I go in there almost every work day to visit the live-in parrot and the tiny turtles.

I'd be happy if dogs were allowed everywhere people are. From what I've seen, the dogs are often cleaner, smell better, have less fleas.... Also friendlier.