As a business professor who teaches a course in consulting I often have students conduct surveys, particularly for market research. Here are a few thoughts.
First, I don't think you will get anything like 50 responses on this site, or any other for that matter. Very few forums will get that many responses for anything. Your best bet is to go yourself to a place where you have permission to be and there are photographers. This could be hard, as most stores or mall managers would be wary. Christmas shoppers are also harried. However they might feel charitable and often there are some members of a party who are sick of shopping and might want to chat. One of the main rules of survey response rates is that respondents have to feel some affinity with the surveyer, even if it's only because of a small payment. In your case it would be sympathy for a student.
Also, you should rewrite some of the questions. There are too many ambiguities as to the possible responses. This is not so much a problem if you administer the survey in person because you would, in effect, create your coding scheme as you go. As it stands, you would get a range of answers that would be hard to compare on the same scale.
Hope this helps somewhat.

Hi,
Actually, he has already received 12 responses in the first day at the Pop Photo site.

Well. Good for the Pop Photo forumites. And I've just learned something useful myself.
Moreover for a high school project I'm sure the questions are fine and the lessons of coding will be learned by practice - always the best way in any event.

Here's a thought for Channing that you could take to your teacher. I've been reflecting on this means of administering a questionnaire. The obvious thing is that it's non-random, which can be OK provided it's representative of the population you have in mind. The same would be true of the means I suggested, and this works fine for many purposes. The less obvious thing is that the results will not be independent of one another. Independence of observations is a basic assumption of virtually all statistical analysis. For your purposes just noting this limitation (and all studies have limitations) should stand you in good stead (I would think). Moreover, the fact that respondents would all see what the earlier ones had done, while it biases their results somewhat, also helps somewhat - perhaps - in that they will come to their own interpretation of what you meant by your questions. Therefore they will presumably respond in ways that are easier to code (because more similar in interpretation of the question) than if they did not see the other responses.

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How old are you?
57

Gender
male but it's not relevant

Are you a shutterbug or professional photographer?
professional

How often do you carry your camera? (IE only on vacations, family outings, everywhere, etc.)
I used to carry it all the time, but now I carry a small compact p&s camera when needed

About how many pictures do you estimate you take whenever you have your camera?
As many as strikes me as necessary

How many pictures do you use/ show off? (family albums, displays)
either I shoot to sell or shoot for fun

Do you prefer black and white or color?
color

Do you consider yourself well adapted to Photoshop?
yes

OK, three more comments on survey design, assuming this is a stats class.
The most generally interesting first: survey researchers work hard on wording for a variety of reasons, one of which is to ensure that respondents all interpret questions the same way. Here's an important thing to consider about your wording. You assume that "shutterbug" and "professional" make up a binary variable, whereas they seem to be part of a continuum (that also includes "snapshooters"). There are many wanna-be and many part-time pros. The reasons are that it seems attractive to many and the entry barriers are low. However it's hard to be very successful.
This relates to the second thing you might want to discuss with your teacher: social desirability effects. Almost all surveys are anonymous and respondents do not know the answers others give. Even then it's important to word things to try to avoid the tendency of people to reply in the way they think makes them look better. In forums you're dealing with cyber personalities but personalities nonetheless. People who want to appear to be informed and successful will not answer the same way as if the answers were secret. I am not casting aspersions on anyone; it's just the way surveys work. One consequence is that the differences between answers for those who call themselves pros compared with shutterbugs will likely be exaggeraged because once someone self-identifies as a pro they are committed to demonstrate this in their other replies.
Third, the sorts of people who go on forums let alone answer may not represent the larger population of interest. One way researchers deal with this "non-response bias" is to compare their sample with what is known of the population. This is a reason that your question about gender helps. You may be able to get some idea of the sex breakdown of the population. My guess is that your sample is non-representatively male, but that's a guess.

OK, now that I've been the professor way too much, here are some answers. You may toss them on the grounds that I am definitely unrepresentative having commented so much on your survey design!

How old are you? 56

Gender M

Are you a shutterbug or professional photographer? SB

How often do you carry your camera? (IE only on vacations, family outings, everywhere, etc.) most days

About how many pictures do you estimate you take whenever you have your camera? 1-150, maybe 4000/year

How many pictures do you use/ show off? (family albums, displays) maybe 2% of above

Do you prefer black and white or color? depends on type of shot - so both

Do you consider yourself well adapted to Photoshop? yes if you mean I understand it all right, no if you mean I like it

Channing, this is just to explain the point of my various comments. I do recognize that this is a high school class assignment and the results will not be submitted to scholarly journals like Organization Science or Organization Research Methods. I use those journals as examples because I serve on their editorial boards (which may help you understand where I'm coming from). So my comments are just meant to help you discuss your results and learn about survey research.
All studies have limitations and you would have a very unusual high school project to notice the ones I've mentioned (non-random sample, which as I noted is not fatal, non-independent observations - because what one respondent writes can affect other respondents, non-response bias perhaps, and possible ambiguity in wording). This is how one learns to do anything but only if one recognizes what has taken place.
You're definitely to be congratulated for the initiative you've shown in using forums as a means to get your sample.

Well I'm glad you have so much information on how to improve my survey but this survey isn't for a statistics class and doesn't measure the obvious results. I'm trying to prove a theory and answer the question and often surveys are meant to answer a question that is unknown to the the person being surveyed and has nothing to do with the questions entirly. Also I am not in a statistics class its more of an ethnographic study and I'm a girl Channing is a unisex name.

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Well I'm glad you have so much information on how to improve my survey but this survey isn't for a statistics class and doesn't measure the obvious results. I'm trying to prove a theory and answer the question and often surveys are meant to answer a question that is unknown to the the person being surveyed and has nothing to do with the questions entirly. Also I am not in a statistics class its more of an ethnographic study and I'm a girl Channing is a unisex name.

I hope you got all the info you need. Don't let the blowhards get to you. Some times people can be a little over indulgent in their lives.

The reason I used the name Channing was that I recognized that I did not know the gender, which I don't believe I ever identified.
As it happens I am an ethnographer and the author of a reasonably well cited book on ethnographic method.
Sorry if you - and not just Mr. Price - think my comments were either discouraging or being a blowhard. I am a teacher after all.
I might add that I have found these forums helpful but have become tired of the ad hominem comments and attacks.

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The reason I used the name Channing was that I recognized that I did not know the gender, which I don't believe I ever identified.
As it happens I am an ethnographer and the author of a reasonably well cited book on ethnographic method.
Sorry if you - and not just Mr. Price - think my comments were either discouraging or being a blowhard. I am a teacher after all.
I might add that I have found these forums helpful but have become tired of the ad hominem comments and attacks.

Attack?! I don't think my comment was an attack. All tha the person in question wanted was a little help with some school work, not comments on how to do said school work. Or the critical questioning on the wording and or layout of their questioning. But you took it upon your self to tear it apart due to it's structure.

That in it's self is an attack of sorts. all that need, and was requested was answers, not how to conduct the questions to be finite in is gathering of the information in question.

You may very well be a teacher And a book writer ,The Ethnographer's Method, I believe that is the title, but here your neither.

No disrespect, but instead of all your blatering you should have just answered the questions and left it at that. Oh, on second note, I have read you book. Just so you know, that I do know who you are.

In the original post, Channing stated she was a high school student and her survey was for a class project. I don't see how offering constructive advice to a student is "attacking" her post. Channing later indicated that her survey has a different intention than AStewart assumed, but that does not negate his good intentions in offering advice. If anyone can't handle getting other people's opinions and advice, they should stay away from internet forums.

The point being that she asked for answers not how she should be conducting her survey. Such a simple thing to do, instead people inject their thought on how it should be done. Now, you spout off with "If anyone can't handle getting other people's opinions and advice, they should stay away from internet forums."

Come on now, that comment is as useless as a door knob on a wall. She was not asking for advice just answers.

I don't take it as a personal attack I'm not a "crazed teenage girl who wears her emotions on her sleeves" I have enough self confidence that I find you alls comments intriguing. However as the post before this one (I can't remember who it was by) said I simply asked a question which has yet to be answered

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The point being that she asked for answers not how she should be conducting her survey. Such a simple thing to do, instead people inject their thought on how it should be done. Now, you spout off with "If anyone can't handle getting other people's opinions and advice, they should stay away from internet forums."

Come on now, that comment is as useless as a door knob on a wall. She was not asking for advice just answers.

Hmmm... I just went back through this entire thread and I could not find in any of the previous posts where Channing asked you to defend her against unsolicited advice... So I guess we're all guilty of failing to simply answer her original questions and otherwise butting out.

And Channing, I haven't responded to your questions because I simply don't do surveys. I hope this answer has been of help to you.

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The point being that she asked for answers not how she should be conducting her survey. Such a simple thing to do, instead people inject their thought on how it should be done. Now, you spout off with "If anyone can't handle getting other people's opinions and advice, they should stay away from internet forums."

Come on now, that comment is as useless as a door knob on a wall. She was not asking for advice just answers.

Hmmm... I just went back through this entire thread and I could not find in any of the previous posts where Channing asked you to defend her against unsolicited advice... So I guess we're all guilty of failing to simply answer her original questions and otherwise butting out.

And Channing, I haven't responded to your questions because I simply don't do surveys. I hope this answer has been of help to you.

your a tool...

Is that a personal attack, or unsolicitated advice??

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Is that a personal attack, or unsolicitated advice??

HAHAHA! Take that one as you wish.

How old are you? 40

Gender: Male

Are you a shutterbug or professional photographer? shutterbug

How often do you carry your camera? all day, everyday.

About how many pictures do you estimate you take whenever you have your camera? 150-300

How many pictures do you use/ show off? maybe 10 meet that drop jaw impression I'm seeking.

Do you prefer black and white or color? Color, because you can always get BW from color, but you can't get color out of a BW image.

Do you consider yourself well adapted to Photoshop? beyond adapted.

How old are you? 16

Gender Female

Are you a shutterbug or professional photographer? Shutterbug

How often do you carry your camera? (IE only on vacations, family outings, everywhere, etc.)Everywhere

About how many pictures do you estimate you take whenever you have your camera? 50

How many pictures do you use/ show off? (family albums, displays)25

Do you prefer black and white or color? Color

Do you consider yourself well adapted to Photoshop? no, seeeing as how i dont have it