I was both. A lifetime (soon turning 71) is a long time, and I was blessed throughout with opportunities that let me learn on the job and study. Of the two, the "learning by making mistakes" approach served me best, tho' the cost in film (and cameras) was high.
I bought a TLR (a Yashica D) as a high school student in 1962, with money earned by writing news reports for regional newspapers in eastern Canada. This Yashica was used exclusively until 1966 and as a second until 1982. It's still in the family, occasionally used by nephews and nieces in New Mexico when they can be bothered ordering 120 film OL. Time passes, things change. Do they ever!
The book I learned the most from as a youngster was in a public library - the classic Kodak, 'All About Photography' 1947 edition. I borrowed it nonstop for several years and it taught me all about Verichrome Pan, DK-60a, Dektol, Kodabromide F and sepia toner and while I quickly (I thought) outgrew the basic basics, the data about B&W greatly influenced my still somewhat old-school approach Kodak shooting style. In the '60s I was a do-it-all/know-it-all type who did news, weddings, babies, school yearbook and graduation portraits, summer yachting competitions, insurance docco work - and architecture, which has been my passion throughout life.
In 1966 I lucked onto a Rolleifex 3.5E2, ordered from the local drug store by a rich retiree who paid a deposit it but died before the camera was delivered. After five years on a shelf I found it and the widow kindly gifted me the down payment (in those days people did such things for young hopefuls) and I paid off the balance at C$20 a month. I still use it. The Rollei more than any other camera, influenced my way of looking and shooting and moved me up to AA (= Above Amateur) status to commercial photographer (I have never dared to call myself a "pro"), along with my Nikkormats, Contax Gs, and briefly in the early 2000s a lavish Hasselblad 500CW kit which cost me a small fortune and took years to offload after I realized I hadn't bonded with it.
In the early '70s, I was a TV promo writer for CBC-TV (Radio Canada) and rather dissatisfied with the hack work, so I did a two-year diploma in commercial photography at a Toronto polytechnic school, which gave me a nice piece of parchment to hang on the wall but otherwise no useful purpose. Nine months of part-time drudgery for a then top Toronto fashion and advertising studio totally put me off trying this as a profession and I left to devote my time and creative energy to what I did best and loved most, photographing architecture.
For 25 years photography was a "second" in my work in Canada, the USA, Southeast Asia and Australia, where I settled in the '80s - as a newspaper journalist, in media promotion, as a magazine editor and in book publishing. At age 40 I got a degree in interior architecture and put in 22 years in office design, eventually with four partners and office staff which squelched almost all my creativity and made me more an administrator, a diplomat and problem solver - and a now and then photographer.
Since retiring in 2012 I've gone on shooting architecture (and more street life) and put in many hours to organize my photo archives of 100,000+ negatives and slides and prints (and since 2008, digital images). I briefly did weddings and baby christenings but I soon gave this up after dealing with modern day Bridezillas and feral MILs. Now I travel several times a year to Asia to shoot old architecture, too much of which is bulldozed to make way for hideous modern shopping malls or necessary but ugly MRT systems and elevated freeways. "Yes, I know, "plus ca change", the French say, but also more fittingly, "a chacun son gout" (fittingly translated by me as "to each his gout")...
Photography has been part of almost everything I've done in my eight decades. It has let me indulge my passion for playing with cameras and documenting things that now fall into most classifications of Life Past, or Life Passed.
As an amateur, I've been free to do MY photography MY way. That my clients liked the results worked in my favor. I still sell a few images as stock and for architectural books, but sadly the clutter of OL digicrap images has greatly damaged these markets.
In books, the classic mid 20th century photographers (mostly American) have influenced me, notably Ansel Adams, Minor White (I did warn you I'm somewhat "old-fashioned") and many others. In architectural photography, a few have shown me the way in their books, notably the great Ezra Stoller.
I would have enjoyed teaching, but given my phlegmatic temperament and with my casual attitudes to work and life in general, I was never sure I'm the classroom teaching type. In the field, with students who have cameras in hand and want to learn by doing rather than booking, yes. So an opportunity missed here. Maybe.
I remain ever amazed and interested at realizing how many of us have picked up our skills on our journey through life. A great and certainly a valued experience.