I found a talent that I kind of have just a while back which if you have seen my recent stuff mainly all fantasy. Maybe a few real things I did draw that really did not have a so called real world around it. To get to the point,drawing from photos but not copying them can be hard to get the exact way it looks, which for me ends up in a type of illustration form which is good because you have your art views put into it,not an exact replica.
So believe in yourself that you are good. There may be people who totally go against looking at reference photos but but it is still art and you for those that do you put your work into it atleast you do not cheat somehow.