I’m new to the hobby and I thought this would be an interesting discussion question. Greatness is subjective, of course, so I’m not talking greatness in terms of being ranked against all photos taken in the world (unless that’s personally the benchmark you choose to rate yourself on). What I’m really asking is how often do you personally feel fulfilled with your photography? Whether you go out daily on photography walks, take your camera everywhere all the time, or just do a ton of professional gigs, what I want to know is how often do you think “Wow, I got a great shot there. I’m really proud of this one.”? Do you have several every time do take photographs, maybe one a day, or is it few and far between for you? How do you feel about coming home from a photo session and feeling that you didn’t really get anything good? For those that do professional client work, how do you feel if you finish a pro gig and don’t feel like you got anything all that special (even though it may be good enough to warrant your professional standards)? On a second note, if you do professional gigs like weddings and such, do you ever aim to get something unique and original or are you more focused on making sure you get everything on your standard checklist of photos your clients expect to have?
Some people on here need to lower the bar on what’s considered ‘great’. A photo isn’t great only if it wouldn’t look out of place in Ansel Adams’ portfolio. You don’t have to cook a meal to Alain Ducasse’s standards to make it great. You don’t have to paint something to the same standards as Da Vinci to make it great. Photography is no different.
It’s great if you’re proud of it and want to do something with it/show it off to others.
I don’t think anyone can be incorrect in how they choose to set standards on themselves. When I posed this question, I knew it would be more of a question of each person’s psyche than one of how good they were at taking photographs. We’ve seen a full range of answers here from people interpreting the question as photos they’re happy to download off the SD card to others who interpret it as photos they’ll look back at as accomplishments from their death bed. There’s no wrong way to see it… it’s all about what drives you to keep going. Some people drive themselves through a consistent feeling of growth while others thrive on an ambition to do things that they haven’t seen before.