To a certain extent, photography requires talent. Let me illustrate to u the path that a photographer takes.
level 1:
the newbie have the intention and decided to pursue further into photography. He begin to search internet sites and read books for photography info & see what camera is best for him. Of course if he plans to start with slr, he will also find out wat lens and other equip are necessary
level 2:
with his new arsenal, he reads the manual & he begins to explore every function of the cam and shoot everything inside his house. The next day, he takes his camera out and shoot everything. this carry on for weeks and even months whereby he takes his camera out and shoot everything he likes.
level 3:
after a matter of weeks and months, he begin to think deeper abt his photos. Compare the photos taken to that seen online, in books and elsewhere and see what aspect is he poor at. He then read up further to improve his techniques and try to take even better photos.
level 4 - the crucial level:
2 kinds of people will emerge from this level onwards, or perhaps earlier.
Slowly and slowly, he begin to realise that no matter how he shoot, his photos are not as pro and not as good as those by the real pros.
the 2 paths that the person will go into is as follows
a) admit that he just have no talent in photography, and leave the camera in the dry cabinet, only take out to shoot as and when he likes, but at no longer the level of passion when he first started out
b) this guy will start to examine other ppl's photos. This guy will finally understand that when looking at a photo, the shutter speed used, the iso used, the apeture used, the white balance used etc. are not important. the guy will finally understand that there are many ways to create the same picture. This guy begins to think more in depth into the art of photography.
level 5:
Not every one can attain this level. those who can successfully move to this level are those who had in level 4, experiment with different ways and methods to imitate & try to recreate the same photos. From experimenting, he has discovered in the process the many ways and angles to look at an item, and thus a masterpiece is created. - this is wat people call trainable talent
How a talent differentiates from a trainable talent is that, the talent requires less experimenting and less time etc. to come up with the picture. This is not to say everyone will be equal, but i believe if one puts in the hard work, gifted talents can be "created".
level 6: the highest level of photography
Reserved for me.