Amateur photography

There is nothing wrong about being an amateur photographer. It simply means you are doing this for fun, and not for the money.

It changes your approach to buying equipment

If you are doing professional photographic work, you have an interest in getting the equipment needed for your work. If you earn money with photography, it is clear that you could afford to spend some of that money on buying equipment that makes you better. But your buying habits will also be different due to:

Specialization: a professional may need more specific equipment for the field she works.
Backups: professionals often carry two sets of similar/identical equipment as spares. Having two identical cameras does not make much sense for an amateur. As an amateur if you have two cameras, make sure they are different.
Increased use: professionals will be taking much more pictures per day/outing than someone who does it for fun. This also means more wear and tear, sometimes 10x more.

These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.