What's a "professional" photographer anyway?

I went to a university and studied photography (among other things).  Avant guard; pristinely printed black and white images with the darkest blacks and the brightest whites (the true gauge of perfection according to Weston and Adams); ciba chromes; a variety of coatings on printing paper; wide angle lenses; macro lenses; fish eye lenses; 35 or 4 by 5 and all the other implements that made up that special universe of humans who are "professional photographers".  When we finally finished our courses and graduated, we too could be "professionals", and more importantly, commercial photographers where the evidence of our design-savvy education would be strikingly evident.

Yes, I learned it all and yes I graduated. But the question I continuously asked of my then professors was "what about snapshots?"  They gasped, cursed, and looked at me in utter disbelief.  The reason, they reminded me speaking as well as they could manage between gritted teeth, I was studying under their tutelage was because I WOULD NEVER, EVER take "snapshots" again (as they sat down hard into their director's chairs and held their queasy stomachs).  Snapshots were the result of amateurs who had, somehow, gotten their hands on a camera and recorded below quality images on film.  "Look", they demanded of me as they opened a text book to an example of an inferior shot, "look at this. There is no composition here. There are no black-blacks and no white-whites. The midtones are muddy and the focus is quite definitely off."

"But don't they do something else?" I inquired.  "Yes," one of my professors roared, "they use up valuable chemicals and waste photo paper!"

I have made my way in life as a writer and a teacher.  Photography is still my first love and although I almost fell out of love with it for the short time I tried to be a professional shooter, thank God I came to my senses and realized it would just ruin the passion that always wells up inside me. The thrill that occurs only when I behold the image awaiting me when I shoot soley for my own pleasure.