regardless people get way too much credit for taking photos (besides portrait photography)
What would lead you to say such a thing? That's the exact opposite of what happens. How many people do you know who go to a website, open a magazine, watch a documentary, read the newspaper, look at an ad, or even browse through a photo filled calendar and say, "Wow, whoever took these photos is really awesome." Almost nobody does this. I don't know where you got the idea that photographers get all this credit for their work, but it is simply not like that.
Now if you're talking about how much praise any one individual may get over his photographic works, then why aren't you saying the same thing about other artists; painters, musicians, writers, etc? If you're going to deal judgement, be fair and reasonable about it.
Also, @Bones: you gotta stop beating yourself up so much. A good number of your photos are fairly good, just maybe need a few tweaks on some of them. Stick with it and keep shooting for the stars. (lol pun)
