I think that what seemed quite interesting to me about Miles was the fact that photography has been a hobby.
There have been times when folks post, looking for advice about how to become pro photographers. It isn't always the reply they wish, but I have sometimes suggested that they forget the professional side of it, make their living elsewhere, and do the snapping for themselves, free from external pressure. That's been taken as a wish to annihilate competition: not so - I'm long out of it; my only competition is with staying alive.
I think that I offer that advice from experience: the parts of the career that gave the most pleasure were, essentially, those commissions where I was given a budget and told to come back with photographs. Period. It would seem that those days are long gone; today, the work would entail a troupe of hangers-on of various types, and 'advice' from each and every one. You really, really equate that with doing your thing? And, of course, seems the money mostly sucks, and you have to give them a movie, too. For the same price. Which is less than it used to be.
Nobody snows an amateur like that - unless he wants to be snowed, of course, as many agencies have found.
Stay the hobbyist! If you want to be the pro, you will be, despite yourself.
Rob C
