Some people are great at not comparing yourself with others in the same field. Heck some may have the power to never compare themselves with anyone, but some cannot control it, and some its just part of business by analyzing "competitors" local or regional. For those who do... how do you rate yourselves? Pick any scale or say multiple scales. I know I personally love my work and think its fantastic, but when compared to my local/regional competitors, but its completely different story compared to the rest of the planet I then hate my work, a total 180. Let's hear it from those who rate themselves, how do you rate yourself!
To rate ones owns self is a tricky thing comparative in respects of ones own art.
I'm a true believer in every relationship is a relationship with themselves.
So when I try to compare work that I feel is much better in a particular genre, I'm alway more curious as to why "I" didn't do it and formulate what it is about myself that failed, what is it "I" need to work on.
Given the right conditions and prep any photographer should be able to create above and beyond the minds eye for work, with exception to random variables such as war and street where the situations and emotions will never be the same.
Grab those photos you put on a pedestal that makes you hate your work and examine yourself not a scale of 1 to 10 but on a deeper scale of what am I set to accomplish with my art.
I live in Utah, where your typical "photographer" is a mom with a Rebel and a kit lens, and very little knowledge of exposure or composition. So locally, I am certainly better than average.
I started printing over 30 years ago, so I am more of an old-school film guy. I'm a bit disappointed to see the art of image making move from the camera to the computer. In my world, the less post time, the better. To that end, I don't compare well to folks that have never shot film, and spend hours working an image. But I'm slowly learning to give more control over to the camera, as long as I get the results I want.
I am happy my clients are happy, but I am far from where I want to be.
I don't have my rent on the line (yet), but as long as my stuff is better than I was x months ago, I'm happy. And on an image-by-image basis, if I know I had a good idea and didn't just fall into a cliche then I'm good too. I'm nowhere near a lot of people I see but...working on it
I worked like a beast of burden for half a century to learn photography and there's some kinds of it that I'm pretty darn good at. But every once in a while one runs across a young whippersnapper that takes photos that make you want to throw your camera way. (The old Minolta, not the Rolleiflex).