Hey, someone has to be different.

I agree somewhat with that comment. My mother, never took a course or officially "learned" photography but she cleaned up on almost every prize and honour of the Canadian National Association of Photographic Art as well as being published, doing presentations and selling her work. At one point I instructed teachers who had never previously used a camera, on using a SLR film camera before going on vacations. The result was that some barely managed to get the film in the camera whereas a few produced quality results with excellent technique and super composition. I also taught two six year olds, who managed to produce excellent portraits using an SLR.

I think that photography is a mixture of a talent that you are born with plus learning or self-taught experience. By talent you are born with I mean in the broader sense of an artistic way of looking at life and the environment, a natural sense of visual composition and its effect, a creative urge to produce something visual in nature, and a knack for visualizing and understanding technical details.

I have supervised technicians who can load film and snap the shutter but with no sense or appreciation of the detailed effort necessary to produce quality or artistic work. They just don't have it. On the other end of the spectrum I have taught others who worked as if they had been born with a camera and produced excellent work with minimal learning and a great photographic and artistic eye.

Ronnoco