There was a recent thread on a high end Nikon "professional" forum which started with a photographer discussing shooting a band performing with the Nikon 18mm-200mm f3.5-5.6 lens at 1/20 second. The first nine responses were discussing white balance issues. Finally the 10th response suggested that the lens was totally wrong for the job and why didn't the photographer use a fast prime lens.

So, what does it take to call yourself a pro? Is it owning the equipment or is it learned skills from experience and understanding the medium and equipment limitations.