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That was a photogs question on a Reddit Photography thread. Here is my take on it... OP...maybe a little. Genius is something you are born with, generally speaking. Although sometimes a thing clicks in the mind and you are ready to go. That is what happened to me after working on infrared flash for 4+ years. Something clicked. But I could have easily given up after 4 years of failure. The genius produces outstanding work with little or no effort, whereas the non-genius may struggle to produce something mediocre. If we could all be geniuses at what we aspire to be going to class or cracking a book open...we would. In the 70's I had a friend that went to Art Center College in L.A. He studied photography. I used to go to class sometimes with him to sit in on classes. I could not afford to go there, so that was as close as I got to Art Center. Anyway, I noticed in the critique sessions for weekly assignments the same students would produce more or less outstanding photos on each assignment. Some would produce OK photos and maybe a great one once in a while and some would produce low end stuff as their general output. Later on with my work as an Art Director I noticed this with artists I would hire or do portfolio reviews on. Some had good technical abilities, but poor creativity. Others had creativity but poor technique. Others had both technique and creativity, but were flakes. Back in the 80's I met a gal in her 40's that retired from business and wanted to be an artist. She was well off selling her business for millions and lived in a mini-mansion in San Marino, CA. She said she had taken some art classes and showed me her portfolio. The draftsmanship was poor and creativity was poor. And her prices to do jobs were very high. Her background as a successful business owner tainted her realistic conception of what is paid for art jobs. Her work smacked of someone with little art talent that struggled to put it down on paper or canvas. It wasn't in her, she had little talent and classes did not do much for her apparently. Now someone with natural talent bangs it out with little or no effort whereas she struggled just to produce sub-par work. In my own case I tried to learn some creativity with book cover design. I produce lots of artist's books. Designing the cover has always been hard for me. I am not a creative person in that area. I bought a number of books on cover design. I studied and studied them over and over again. The best I could do with my creativity for cover design would be to try and copy off of covers I liked in the book. It wasn't in me. When I first started with photography in 1969 / 1970 I wanted to be a fashion / studio photographer. After a few years it sunk in I had no talent for that type of work. Eventually I found what I do have talent in and work in that area. We all have different abilities, so why not make the most of the talents you got? Sure, study all you like but if it is not you, don't waste your life on trying to be something you can't naturally be great at. Do what you are great at. Selection from Weekly World News Front Page Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection