it looks like most answers to this post have been general in nature when
i think you were really wanting personal answers as to what we
personally do with pov, and a little background info about ourselves. 
am i wrong?  some answers can be found at the new povusers.org (or is it
povrayusers.org?) where many users have posted information about
themselves (not me YET).  

as for myself, the reason i started using povray is a long story i will
try to make short.  basically, i'm good at everything i try to do and
have an interest in literally everything.  my brother on the other hand
isn't good at much and always felt he was in my shadow.  he took up
art.  i did too.  my parents asked me to stop.  i complied.  15 years
later, my brother is in a tech school for computer networking (not art)
and i'm at university for electrical engineering (which i love). 
however, i always wished i had pursued art because the little i was able
to do was very good.  with years spent in mathematics and technical
courses (and with a love for computers) however, i decided that computer
graphics is the best hope i have for an artistic outlet.  i started with
paint shop pro, then found terragen, then povray.  i started this year
and love it.  i quickly found that model making comes easy to me, but as
h.e. day was oh so quick to point out, my texturing 'needs work'
(sucks).  so lately, i've been spending a little time modelling and a
lot of time reading everything i can about procedural textures.  i hope
to someday conquer texures and make realistic images in povray.  my goal
is realism in images, but i must say that some of the more abstract and
stylized images other povers make are incredible and often beautiful. 
these folks in this community are a constant inspiration to me.

as far as i know, povray isn't that useful commercially.  quality images
take too darn long to make for commercial purposes unless one has a lot
of preconstructed models laying around.  i have heard, however of people
using other tools to develop a scene and then using povray as the final
renderer.  i don't know how much of that goes around.  you are right
about extra math or computer knowledge being a must.  but there are a
lot of macros and includes already constructed that less technical folfs
can use and also modellers like moray (the one i mainly use), povlab,
and spatch.

Adam wrote:
> 
>    So, it seems that we agree that Povray is a good free program. It's
> always good to see exactly what you're doing and to be able to experiment.
> Such is the design. The question is, what are people doing with it?
> Apparently, my hunch has been correct. People that use the program are
> artists--or at least that's what they call themselves--who like the idea of
> creating seemingly photorealistic if not surrealistic scenes. People also
> use the program to acquaint themselves with ray tracing and to "have fun"
> from successfully completing "projects," or even from competing in IRTC.
>    What surprises me is the ammount of extra knowledge these artists must
> obtain: both computer knowledge--for editing INI files for example--and
> mathematical knowledge--for working with normalized time in animations, just
> to create a picture.
>    Then, let me put it this way. Does anyone make good money using Povray.
> I'm talking computer art expos, product design teams, architects, city
> planning, anything of the sort. I haven't heard anyone say a thing about the
> usefullness of Povray. People have been talking of it as if it were a sport,
> not a tool. You have fun, exercise your mind, get your feet wet, join an
> international phenomenon, etc. That's something you say about scooters or
> Pokemon, not a screwdriver or a calculator.

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