David: Wow. That's quite a resume. Let's get started on a topic near and dear to most photographers' hearts: getting known. If you're getting started and you want to promote your photography, what are some of your options?

Andy: Before we talk about promoting a photographer's work, I think we need to talk about what it takes to succeed as a professional photographer. With the rise of personal publishing and Internet communications there is more and more competition. This means that you not only need to create good images, but you need to ensure that you know how to run a business, build a brand and, in the end, build equity in that brand through promotion and visibility.

Photographers, like many other business professionals, have several choices and outlets for promoting their brand such as direct mail, the Yellow pages, print advertising, online listings and they certainly should not underestimate the power of referrals.

In most types of photography, it is important when starting out to explore multiple avenues for promotion but the important thing is to provide a clear destination for your promotions. In today's world, having a Web site is probably the best, most cost effective way to introduce oneself at the end of a promotion.

In photography, a photographer's brand is his or her creative vision, and being visual in nature, it is critical for people to experience this vision without distraction. For this reason, it is critical to build a Web site that emphasizes the photography and is easy to view and not cluttered with lots of distractions. A well-designed Web site is something that photographers can use to promote their work, their brand and can serve as a calling card that works on their behalf 24/7, every day of the year.

Years ago, jobs were won or lost through direct interactions between the photographer and their client. Today, most of those meetings do not even take place without the client first reviewing work online. Now the challenge is to reach a more diverse set of buyers without possibly knowing where the next opportunity lies.

This changes the question to become "how many jobs didn't you get because of your Web site?" Without question, a good online portfolio is the best promotional tool and representation of a brand that a photographer can have today.

David: What are the various categories of photographers and how can a given reader tell which category he or she might fit into?

Andy: There are literally dozens of "categories" of photographers (or photography) but I think most photographers have a pretty good understanding of which category or categories they fall into. Some of the most common categories include fashion, wedding, portrait, photojournalism and documentary, food photography, commercial illustration and advertising.

It used to be that all photographers specialized in one category or another, but today photographers have a vision and they carry this out across various disciplines and categories of photography. Many photographers specialize in more than one area and have personal interests in others.