As someone who sees dozens of portfolios every day, I think you vastly overestimate the "quality" of most people who call themselves professional photographers–

As someone who sees dozens of portfolios every day, I think you vastly overestimate the "quality" of most people who call themselves professional photographers–especially those who shoot weddings and portraits. Also, the latest version of Instagram saves high-res versions of manipulated images to your camera roll. With the iPhone 4s having an 8mp camera, resolution is not the issue. Yes, Instagram's filters are exaggerated and images are cropped square, but they aren't that far off from a lot of things I see people doing for money. People buy a DSLR at Costco for $600 and a website for $250 (hopefully from me), and they are now a "professional" and shooting weddings on Craigslist for $800 or portraits for their Facebook friends. Without technical skills, high-contrast, over-saturation, blown-out, tinted looks become "in". Similar to the bible verse, "Photoshop filters cover a multitude of sins"