Recently I had an interesting encounter on . It started when graciously retweeted one of my recent posts about the newly updated Lightroom Mobile, and it prompted someone on Twitter to reply very harshly, implying that I was not a “real” photographer.

Now, I am not one to feed the trolls, but I had to ask him what his definition of a “real” photographer was. Here’s the Twitter conversation so you can see his response:

For those of you who know me, a large part of my business is that I write and sell photography-related eBooks, tutorials, and other content (presets & textures) and sell them in my own online store.

According to this fellow, doing so does not make me a photographer (even though a large portion of my income is derived from my stock photography earnings). I don’t feel the need to defend myself, I believe that my photographs and knowledge about photography speaks for itself. Overall, I chuckle at these reactions, and I tend to get very few of them (which is always nice).

Ironically, this conversation got me thinking … what is your definition of a “real photographer”? Share your thoughts in the comments below!