I'm professional graphic artist and designer. Worked for book publishers, magazines, other companies as illustrator or designer but never as photographer... I used photography just as a part of my art job... Once upon a time I understood that a photography is also kind of art with the same laws and rules... Now no difference to me what I'm making: paintings, illustrations, design, photographs - all these things are just different sides of art I'm living in... Now the art of digital photography is the major thing to me...
I'm not interested in making a copies of the Mother Nature. God created her perfectly and my copy never will be even close... That's why I use photography for creating my own, "second reality"...