Photography

First, don’t put more thought into the comparisons. People progress at different rates, they can leverage different experiences, etc. Just worry about getting better.

Second, do put more thought into the comparisons. These other photographers who have photos you like — what do you like about them? Color? Lighting? Composition? Subject? Sharpness? Softness? Realism? “Fantasticalism”? Pick one aspect and find a few examples of it and then try to reproduce it. Spend a month or two on it if that’s what it takes. Once you have the skill developed to your liking—doesn’t have to be exact—go on to another aspect.

I am an enthusiast who is good at composition and manual exposure but I have other areas that I need to work on: light, focus techniques, post-processing. So yeah I am bummed when I consider those areas - I think of missed shots, shots that could have been stronger, and edits that take forever and surely are not pulling the best from my images. But it’s just got to be one step at a time—keep plugging, try to get better, try some new techniques. Can’t learn everything at once though so just pick one thing and work on that till it is no longer the bottleneck.