The new tools have created instant photographers.

The smart phone is an addictive tool that rewards the user with instant gratification.
Just press the button and you can shoot anything; and it actually presents a decent image.
Stanley Kubrick had to spend hundred of thousands of dollars to shoot the candle lit images in Barry Lyndon. With a smart phone you can shoot a cup cake with few lit candles and light up the faces and room of the birthday party. Does that make you a photographer? Can you create one ofa kind images that will become part of the history of photography?

If that is not you interest you should stop reading this now.

The learning process is a series of failures that stimulate your imagination. In turn, over a period of time you develop your ideas and voice that can become a part of the history of photography. In the past you had to actually light the subject by cutting and diffusing the light wit bathing a face and making a decision. If you were unhappy with the result you had to redo the lighting until you were pleased.

That trial and error developed your signature lighting. It could take years before your peers could recognize who took the picture. Now you get an umbrella light that gives you a proper exposure at a given distance. The Problem is you photo looks like everyone else. Corporations are creating tools standardize images; that hamper the development of personal visions.