A quick check showed one way that figure is bogus. From that website, drilled down to check the regional figures they used, specifically Springfield, IL, for all the "photographer" jobs they listed. This is the result:
"Photographer" - $51,521
"Biomedical Photographer
" - $46,409
"Photographer, Scientific" - $40,890
"Art Director Assistant" - $67,956
Well, that art director (who is described as "supervising photographers") sent the average 'way up. What's interesting (and bogus) is that they indicate a vanilla photographer makes substantially more than a specialized photographer.
I checked Chicago and discovered they used the same categories, although the numbers were of course higher--but each by the same ratio.
