Anyone with a camera, I suppose, would be a photographer. It just takes a really dedicated person, or a nut, to spend $2000 on a bag full of photography equipment, and that's not the real expensive stuff. Another difference may be that a photographer is taking photograph for "arts sake."

I've been taking pictures for "arts sake" since my first year in college when I had a Kowa film camera, and black and white was more common than college. Now I'm using a Canon Digital Rebel and "processing" the images in Photoshop and company. I haven't won any big prizes, though I have a few nice pictures and a bunch of "Honorable Mention" ribbons.

With the Digital Rebel, I have a 75-300mm zoom, 28-70mm, and an 18-55mm and various filters. Increasingly, I'm shooting more and more in camera RAW format. At 7mp each, I only get about 65 on a CF card.

The page hasn't been updated in a while, but I have a few of my pictures at http://www.pbase.com/dbell154.