I'm a photographer. I went to university and have spent many years assisting some incredibly talented advertising and editorial photographers. I've worked hard, and now make a living taking pictures.
If I met myself 15 years ago I would tell myself to study something else and keep photography as a hobby. I can't see myself being a photographer in 10 years time. Most photographers I know won't be photographers in 10 years time.
Everyone has a camera, most people think they they can take a good picture and they understand what a good photograph is. Every year the pool of 'professional' photographers grows and grows. Every year the pool of paid, decent work shrinks. Jobs I did for agencies three years ago, I'm being asked to do today for less money, oh and can you include some video too please? Budgets are shrinking. There are a thousand hungry photography graduates desperate for their first break, willing to work for free. And those graduates are fucking talented.
The handful of people who succeed in the industry today are those that live, sleep, eat and breath and piss photography. They work 18 hours days, 7 days a week, network network network, self fund interesting projects, network some more, continuously test shoot, enter contests and push push push themselves to be half an inch better than the rest of those equally insanely dedicated obsessives.
So there's that. The obsession.
Then there is the actual skill. Everyone can take a good picture. But how many pictures did you have to take to get that one good picture? The photographer that gets hired and hired again is the one that can turn up to an ugly location, with an incoherent brief, a uncooperative subject and a window of less than 3 minutes, and they will get the picture and that picture will look great. And do it consistently again and again. That's really quite hard to do and takes most people a LOT of practice. Being consistently, reliably good takes hard, long, shittily paid work. Years of it.
I could go on and on but I'm starting to sound like the old grizzled guys who bitch about the good old days and how bad everything is now and I always sigh and roll my eyes at them..
Seriously, have fun with your camera, do some short courses, maybe you'll score a few gigs. But unless you are 5000% dedicated and have an overabundance of innate god given talent, don't bank on turning it into a long term career that will pay for your kids education, allow you to get a mortgage or retire in any comfort.
And if for some insane, masochistic reason you do decide to break into photography, don't work up a portfolio that is a bit of food photography, some kids in the woods and some interiors. You need to pick a niche and kick total ass at it. People who buy photography will look at a mish mash portfolio, laugh and throw it onto the amateur pile. It could work if you are out in the sticks and the only photographer for miles, but chances are you're not.
So, in a nutshell, this is what I have learnt from being a photographer. Basically... Don't.