Given the relative ease with which photos can be take now, how do you explain the art, science and technique of photography to others?

I'd preface this post by admitting that I am a rank amateur as far as photography goes, the description of amateur might even be rather generous, however, I was invited to a dinner party a few weeks ago where a few of the guests were either only acquaintances or completely unknown to one and other.The topic eventually turned to discussing hobbies and interest, as it often does at these things, and I offered that I was a photographer (with the same sort of qualifying I did at the start of this post). One of the other guests said something to the effect of "these days, anyone can be a photographer, I take pictures on my phone all of the time!"I didn't know this bloke well, so I wanted to be polite yet "correct" him, so I told him I felt the same way about photography before I got into it, so I replied along the lines of "I used to think that too until I started getting into photography and appreciating it as a discipline."The other guest was dismissive, and while I did my best to convince him photography wasn't just pointing a camera in a direction and pressing the shutter button I think it is fair to say I failed to make much of an impression. tl;drThe reason I share this anecdote is to learn how other photographers defend or promote photography as a serious discipline that not "just something everyone" can do because they have a camera phone. I understand that pretty much everything looks easy to outsiders, but I am wondering how people have dealt with this.Thanks. via /r/photography https://ift.tt/2yxSiV6