I've attempted to address part of this in previous posts, but this graph gets pretty much all of it out in one swoop. The most important aspect being: EGO. The blue line represents how good you think you are as a photographer. Notice it starts at the top. 90% Everything I shoot is perfect. It's pretty. My mom loves it. As knowledge makes its miserably slow decline off of 0%, the EGO line comes down. Quick.
Also - as soon as one hits the Gearfaggotry section of knowledge, the Quality of photos decreases significantly, plopping the photographer in The HDR Hole. Now, I don't have anything against HDR in principle, but I do hate how most people execute it. AND, I have definitely seen this happen. A Photographer gets their first tripod, first prosumer camera body, and first superwide lens and procedes to.... make a shitload of HDR images.
The part that I really enjoy is the instant decline in the EGO line shortly after the photographer gets into Flickr, Photoshop and DeviantArt.
Dammit, I suck.
I think every creative person finds this moment eventually. Many find it frequently. The important thing is that after the "Dammit, I suck" moment, the EGO line stays in check. The photographer doesn't think his shit don't stink - but rather is humble about his images. The quality of photos are well above how good the photographer thinks he is - so he keeps trying, learning, pushing. I think we should all strive to be that photographer.
