Introduction
Photography has a lot of rules.
Professional photographers always do this. Professional photographers never do that. You have to use this lens. You should never sell digital files. You have to shoot manual. You can’t crop a horse that way. You should never discount. You have to structure your business this way if you want to be considered a professional.
But who made those rules?
In this Field Notes episode of the Equine Photographers Podcast, we’re looking at the difference between legitimate professional photography advice and personal preference that has gradually been turned into an industry commandment.
Because there absolutely are professional standards, technical limitations, client requirements, safety considerations and lessons that come from years of experience. But there are also plenty of things photographers do simply because that’s what works for them.
Knowing the difference matters.
IN THIS EPISODE
We look at how photography rules get created, repeated and eventually accepted without anyone stopping to ask why they exist in the first place. Some began with legitimate technical or business reasons. Others may have made sense for a particular photographer, client or market. And some are simply preferences that have been passed from photographer to photographer until they started sounding like professional standards.
We also talk about why context matters when evaluating photography advice. The right approach for photographing a sale horse may be completely wrong for an editorial portrait. A business model that works beautifully for a luxury portrait photographer may make absolutely no sense for an official horse show photographer handling thousands of competition images.
The question isn’t simply whether someone recommends doing something. The more useful question is why they recommend it.
Key Takeaway
Good professional advice usually comes with a reason.
When someone tells you not to do something because it creates distortion, causes a safety issue, violates a client requirement, interferes with the intended use of an image or has repeatedly created a specific business problem, they’ve given you information you can evaluate and apply.
“I would never do that” doesn’t provide the same information.
Experience absolutely matters, but experience becomes far more valuable to other photographers when we explain the lessons behind it. Instead of simply teaching photographers another rule to memorize, we can teach them how to understand the problem that rule was intended to solve.
Why This Matters
Newer photographers are especially vulnerable to confusing preference with professional standards because they don’t yet have enough experience to know the difference.
When an established photographer says, “Professionals don’t do that,” the statement carries authority. A photographer who is still learning may build part of their workflow, pricing, client experience or creative process around that advice without ever understanding why.
That doesn’t mean photographers should dismiss advice from experienced professionals. Quite the opposite. There is an enormous amount of knowledge that only comes from doing the work repeatedly, dealing with clients and making mistakes.
But photographers should learn to ask better questions.
What problem does this solve? What happens if I don’t follow this advice? Does it apply to my type of photography? Does it apply to my clients? Is there a technical, safety or business reason behind it?
Those questions turn advice into something useful.
The Bigger Context
Photography changes.
Camera technology changes. Client expectations change. Markets change. Delivery methods change. Business models change. Something that was excellent advice fifteen years ago may still be excellent advice today—or the circumstances that created it may no longer exist.
That’s why understanding the reasoning behind a rule is more valuable than simply memorizing the rule itself.
It’s also why “it depends” can sometimes be one of the most professional answers we can give another photographer. The next step is explaining exactly what it depends on.
The goal shouldn’t be to create photographers who know a giant collection of rules. It should be to create photographers who understand their craft, their clients and their businesses well enough to make informed decisions.
Final Thought
Eventually, every photographer develops preferences. We find workflows that make us faster, business practices that work for our clients and creative choices that become part of our style. There is nothing wrong with sharing those preferences or explaining what has worked for us.
We simply need to be careful about turning them into universal rules.
If you’re giving advice, explain the why. If you’re receiving advice, ask for the why. You may discover a technical reason, a client requirement, an expensive lesson or twenty years of experience behind the recommendation.
Or you may discover that it’s simply how that photographer likes to do things.
Both can be useful information.
We just need to know which one we’re hearing.
About the Equine Photographers Podcast
The Equine Photographers Podcast features conversations, interviews, and Field Notes exploring the business, craft, and future of equine photography. From workflow and pricing to industry trends and marketing, each episode is designed to help photographers build stronger, more sustainable businesses.
🎙️ Browse all episodes: Equine Photographers Podcast
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