Your mom has a camera

You can't just get a camera and call yourself a professional photographer. You need a computer and peripherals.

It has to be a fast computer because it has to run the latest version of Photoshop. Photoshop is like your photography license. If you don't have it, you're not a working photographer. Photoshop is industry standard, and we know this because it has also become a verb.

"Photoshop this, photoshop that."

"See Spot walk. See Spot photoshop."

"I'll photoshop your mom!"

Knowing how to shoot is not enough. You need to know how to photoshop.

You need to be able to deliver files to your client quickly, so broadband internet connection is a must. But you can't send tens or hundreds of megabytes by e-mail, so you need some other means of sending files. This requires some Internet 101 knowledge, which should be no problem for you if you grew up using the internet. If you didn't, or you don't even know what FTP is, you should find a different career.

Sometimes files are so large that sending them over the internet isn't practical, so you also need a DVD burner, a stack of recordable DVDs and CDs, and mailers for transporting the discs.

Not so bad so far, right? Wait, you also need a photo printer so you can show print samples. You'll need an extra hard drive sooner or later, and another one later on. You need a graphics tablet so you can photoshop faster. You need a big, high resolution monitor and need to know how to calibrate it correctly. You also need a comfortable chair.

Did I forget to mention photography equipment? You'll need some of those too.