What is the general nature of the type of work performed in the photography industry?

Answer 1

This is a tough question to answer because in my personal experience there is very little of a "general nature" to the Photography industry except the actual capture of images on film or digitally. Getting the picture is the one goal commonly held by all photographers.

Specialists might include wedding photographers, portrait photographers, photojournalists or press photographers, food photographers, aerial photographers, automobile photographers or medical photographers, - the list can go on and on and might include almost anything you can think of, but if a photographer does nothing but weddings, s/he may be thought of as a wedding specialist. Except …! Wedding photographers, to take but this one example, must have the skills and vision of a portrait photographer; a group photographer; a fashion photographer; a small product photographer (the cake; the rings; champagne in glasses …); photojournalist (candids and grab shots, first dance …) - this list can go on and on, so even many so-called specialists must be well trained, flexible, competent and imaginative.

Generalists might include advertising photographers, industrial photographers, commercial photographers or small product photographers. But for example, an advertising photographer might be called upon in a single day's work to do industrial, aerial and small product, and if the client needs a portrait of him or herself reflected in the highly polished surface of the conference table and the cityscape at dusk visible through the windows behind, our intrepid advertising photographer must be a skilled portrait photographer as well.

What all this suggests is that, if you aspire to the profession, a successful photographer should have at least some skills training, whether in a formal school or apprenticeship, but the rest of it really cannot be taught except by the greatest teacher of all: experience.