A few words about "skill" in photography

Piana Grande, Castelluccio di Norcia - Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini (Umbria)

This is a photograph that I really like, being able to do it gives me great satisfaction, capturing this moment, this scene with these particular colors, this light, the horse in the right place ... I don't write this to brag, on the contrary just the opposite! Often when you show some nice pictures, you earn some "bravo" from friends and acquaintances but, on reflection, "bravo" for what? After all, photography is nothing difficult, the rules are few and simple, the technical skills required are elementary, it is basically a matter of matching times and apertures in the correct way, so where is the skill ?

Personally I do not consider myself good at all, rather I consider myself lucky, or willing, or visionary, but not good, because in this case for example, it is nature that has put all the elements in the right place, and the sun projecting its lights and its shadows, created these contrasts, and the horse that "accidentally" found itself in that position, illuminated by the last rays of our star. The horse could have been a few meters further on, and it would have been in shadow, and goodbye contrast, I could have happened to that place ten minutes earlier, or ten minutes later, and the light would have been completely different, so where is my skill ? What did I put into it, of mine ? Perhaps the skill is just a kind of visionary ability to grasp some external elements as ingredients to create a good image, but it is something that comes almost natural, instinctive, like walking or breathing. Of mine i have put the will to walk, to go there, to spend a night sleeping in the car after having traveled hundreds of kilometers to earn that place, that beauty, superlative !

Perhaps the only merit I can have is that of seeing, of being able to notice things that perhaps others do not see, or to give value and meaning to things that appear trivial to others, and I have noticed this on many occasions, finding myself taking many photographs where others didn't see anything to photograph, but in the same way other photographers see things that I do not see, each of us notices things that others miss, and this is also the beauty of photography: each expresses his world, each he projects himself out into the reality that surrounds him, and through the lens he makes it visible to all. This is also why I don't like contests and competitions, photography is a means of expression and communication, not of competition ! 

Perhaps therefore the skill also lies in having a good ability to listen, to know how to listen to oneself, and to be able to find in the external environment those ingredients that are in tune with our mood, then the resulting photograph comes from the depths of the our soul, and will have that extra ingredient that makes the difference. This is why all photographs, if taken with the heart, in my opinion are important and meaningful, beyond the technical skills of those who took them.

Finally, perhaps what we call "skill" is also trust, is will, is spirit of research: you must have the trust that the world is a wonderful place full of beautiful things to find, you just need to look, and you must have the will to move, to go to research, to "hunt": looking for lights, atmospheres, lines, shapes and colors that are in tune with our emotions, with our spirit.

So in conclusion, in my humble opinion, skill doesn't have much to do with times and apertures, skill is not in doing, but in being.