In addition to my duties on this website, I'm a professional portrait photographer – something I've been doing for over a decade. I don't get to shoot for pleasure as much as I would like to these days, but there's nothing better than client work to keep your photography skills sharp.
You show up, typically having never met your subject before, with no clue about the location or lighting conditions or anything else, and you simply have to make everything work. That's the difference between shooting professionally and shooting for fun – if you're taking pictures for yourself, it doesn't matter if you go home empty-handed. But if you're shooting for a client, you have to produce.
