This guest post is by Pavithra Meera Ramasubramanian, a San Diego-California based photographer turning passion into profession by photographing Nature, Portraits, and Lifestyle. Learning is the key and you can see her work progress by following her on Twitter and seeing her work on her blog.

Learning photography as an art and becoming a professional is a hard balance to understand. I just began my journey towards becoming a professional and this is the biggest lesson that I am still learning.

I love photography and my passion drives me towards it. So after finishing my Biology degree this past year I set myself to becoming a professional photographer. The one question that keeps running through my mind when I’m learning the ins and outs of this industry is: Are you working for yourself or someone else as a Professional Photographer?

Coming from a culture that strongly believes in biology or engineering as the career of choice, it has been very hard to endure the numerous questions and advice on why I shouldn’t pursue this field. Although career changing is not so uncommon these days, it has been hard for me to convince not only my family but also my friends that this is what I want to do. It was bestowed on me, a South Asian woman, that I should pursue a normal life with a safe job. And Photography, as I have learned, is not the normal or safe job according to the people I encounter.

I say this because I have had to sit through many birthdays and parties where people just hand me their point and shoot camera and say something like: “since you want to become a pro photographer … take our picture.” More than a compliment it had been said in a condescending manner. I go home thinking wait is that all I get to do? Where is the art or vision in photography if there seems to be little respect or little satisfaction of having composed something beautiful? So photographers just work to please others but not themselves?

These moments in the past really have brought me to ground to rethink photography and my vision. In that period, I started forming a huge gap between my camera and me. It was very difficult understanding what people want and what I want out of me. It wasn’t bad that I was questioning myself but the fact that I was questioning what I am passionate about was something I wasn’t ready for.

Everyone needs a good support system to be successful in what we do. Whether it is our family, friends or the best of all a good audience for our photography, we all need some kind of push to help us love our work. It was at my low point that my family gave me the right push. They began to truly believe in me by being right by my side and pushing me to take the next step. They guided me to start asking some serious questions to myself and to listen to my heart. I started to find my inner peace to know that you win some and you loose some. It was tough to deal with people who didn’t appreciate my work but it was even more grateful to know that I have a good group of viewers enjoying my photographs. It was these viewers who helped me understand that I have the ability to find beauty in everyday life.

For those of you who are just entering into this field and changing a hobby to a passion here are some things that you should consider and understand:

1. Take both forms of advice, good and bad – but apply what you know and feel is right, the one that helps you move forward.

2. Don’t do it alone- take all the support you can get- this is the biggest key to help you succeed.

3. And remember at the end of the day you have to answer to yourself- your thoughts and your happiness- if you do something you love, you will work hundred times harder at it and prove many people wrong.

You will soon find yourself in a place where you will know how to combine both the artistic world of photography and see that others are also pleased with your work. And learn that you have a clear complete vision of who you are and what your photography means to you.

This is a guest post by Iurie Vlasov, a Marketing professional at Vitriol Consult LLC specializing in SEO and Innovative web-marketing.

On August 23, the world of photographers was touched by a piece of news that created quite some buzz – a totally new and innovative proofing system was to be released in October – ProofPress. You may be wondering what is the point of another photo cart when there is a myriad of different other products for online proofing available out there. Read on and you will understand!

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” ~ Steve Jobs

The creators of ProofPress, two young dashing individuals from Florida with an extensive experience in web-development and who specialized for years in e-commerce systems have come with an idea to create something different for the photographer. There is nothing new when it comes to photo proofing systems, and most of them already out there are very similar in functionality, but different in quality and price. ProofPress on the other hand was created with the end user in mind. But there are two end-users to a photo cart system you will say. Indeed, there is the photographer on one end who has the task of managing the system and the customer on the other end. Many photographers today are just too busy to deal with all the “advanced” functionality their current photo proofing cart provides, and may give up on using one for the sake of saving time and use the old-school “on-the-phone” method to get their print orders from clients. So much for saving time.

Now back to those two guys in Florida. What they did is to have an idea that was revolutionary. Being developers and not photographers they got in touch with a few portrait and wedding photographers and spent time talking and understanding what their needs were and what is that they miss most in their current systems. After many hours and tens of pages of sketches and charts and mockups etc. they finally decided to give the modern photographer a system that would work directly out of their WordPress blogs. Not bad, because 85% of the photographers out there use WordPress for their photo blogs, because it's reliable, because it's easy to use, because it's safe, because it's constantly developing and updating, and yes because – Google loves WordPress.

Well, here we go, why not have a proofing system that will work as a plugin from your WordPress administration back end. No need to remember different passwords for different admin accounts, no need to have a multitude of admin urls to remember, but instead just one plain WordPress backend. And that is what ProofPress does, installs as a plugin in your WordPress and opens a whole new system in there. The guys jokingly call it, “a system inside a system.” But be aware that you need to have a self hosted blog on an actual domain that belongs to you and NOT one of those “johndoe.wordpress.com” blogs.

That is all good you will say, but what makes it so special? My answer is simple here, it will indeed offer what most of the systems out there do right now but will also be packed with other features:

a) Full front end customization, you as a photographer will be able to customize your proofing site by editing a multitude of options, like changing your logo, background, fonts, colors you name it… and the system will also be compatible with custom created templates. Now you will be able to apply your branding and design and have a unique photo cart.

b) Per client management. No more gallery grids. Each of your customers will be provided with his own client site where he will see only his galleries and information that you provide, including a text page which you can edit the way you want by adding a model release form, or maybe some what-to-wear information

c) A revolutionized way of managing collections (packages). ProofPress will offer the most flexible way of creating a collection. Managing print credit, discounts etc has never been easier and you know what, you can even let your clients create their own custom collections.

d) You will also be able to manage your financials and send invoices directly from your administration panel which gives you some basic accounting features and you will always know the state of your expenses and profits. A great feature for beginners who don't really need a bookkeeping system like Freshbooks etc.

These are some of the many features that ProofPress will offer. Stay tuned for the official press release the guys will publish in the beginning of October. Meanwhile you can contact them via email at info@proof-press.com and sign-up for a 30% discount at ProofPress.

The Front End:

The Back End:

Win on 10/10/10! ProofPress is generously offering ONE free license to a Tiffinbox subscriber. Here is how you may be able to win this WordPress plugin: First, Tweet the following: “I just learned about a very cool WordPress plugin called @ProofPress on @PicSeshu's Tiffinbox. #ProofPress Please RT!” Second, comment below and tell me WHY you deserve to win. Don't forget to mention your Twitter handle so that I can make sure you have done both. I need to see a minimum of 50 real, honest, entries before I can give this away on October 10, 2010. So whatchawaitinfor?

WINNER ANNOUNCED – Kate McKenna – from Medford, MA has won ONE license of ProofPress, the forthcoming WordPress Plugin. Follow her on Twitter. Congratulations Kate!

Today's guest post is by Nick Franklin, a photographer and student from Huntsville, Alabama. Follow him on Twitter.

Risk and reward is the mantra of business. How many risks and rewards does a person have to take to be a professional photographer in this market? What are you willing to lose for chasing a dream? If you haven’t looked at these questions yet, you will. No one can provide you the answers, and no one can make choices for you. What they can do, is tell you what they did, and maybe you can glean experience from them. I’d like to share my own with you here.

As an amateur-professional I faced a hard decision early on with where I would take my photography, and what I would lose doing so. Art college is a heavily debated topic in the field, some say it’s almost necessary, others say you’re better served in business school. I weighed the pros and the cons. Being surrounded in a artistic zone could be hugely beneficial in developing a vision, but could also burn me out soon. And, above all, was the cost. My choice schools, somewhere like the Savannah College of Art & Design or Brooks Institute were hugely more expensive than some of the top business schools available to me. Combine that with a looming recession, and my choice was practically made for me. I would not pursue any academic credential in photography. I took instead a more common path, a business major, and secured myself a job through college. I don’t regret this decision now, as the market has not recovered, and I was able to devote what time I had for photography to its best use. I shot what I wanted, and learned a lot photographing things I never thought I would. Making images became a retreat from the norm, and only increased my desire to make them.

My improvement over two years only opened more doors to me however, and with that came more decisions. Clients began to pop up, and I had to decide whether I wanted to forgo those unique shooting excursions to make side money and begin the trying process of building a business. I chose the latter, and it turned out to be considerably harder than I had expected. Balancing shooting, editing, and managing some level of brand on a limited schedule was quickly running my love of photography into the ground.

It wasn’t long until I would drop everything I had on my plate. I left my job, took a semester off from college and stopped taking clients. What on earth could create such a sudden about face? A chance of a lifetime I thought. A photographer who I respected greatly, to the point of modeling my own hopes of success on, was accepting internships. I applied, was accepted, invested over a thousand dollars to relocate myself and for the first time pursued photography full time with no hesitations. My hopes going in were that this was at least a foot in the door of a major studio, or a life adventure I would never forget.

I got much more of the latter than the former. Personal differences led me to leave the studio less than two weeks into my internships. In such a short time my expectations were crushed, and I was left broken. The risk I took had not paid off. It had cost me not only monetary value, but pride and a place beside someone I respected. I found rock bottom.

I didn’t pick up a camera for nearly three months. I was able to resettle myself at home, though not able to make up the lost time from school, and found myself another job. I spent that time thinking about why I took the risk originally, and what I learned from it. I learned that despite how much we get consumed with the mood and meaning of imagery, behind the camera and in front of the lens are real people with real problems. That the things we let go to pursue a dream are the very things that made it in the beginning. In some ways this failure taught me more than success would.

It’s a personal decision in the end how much you are willing to risk for this lucrative career. It’s the things you don’t think about that hurt the most, things like family and friends, or the impression you have a hero. Measure these things very carefully, but go boldly with what you decide. There can be no reward without risk, and sometimes the rewards aren’t always evident.