The Use of Photos

I don't see anything at all wrong with using photographs, but it feels like an important part of the creative process is being left out. Especially when what I am doing, basically, is copying the photo as it is.
That's my problem, I copy the photo literally. I can't seem to see beyond the photo. It's influence is too strong.
What is there already is speaking too loudly for me to hear anything else.
I adopt the composition, colors,shading...and paint what I see.
Sometimes the results are quite good...especially when the photo I have chosen is well composed already. Here's one called The Red Slipper

But I'm missing out on a big part of the fun and enjoyment that come from resolving the issues from the very beginning. The matters of composition, shading, color, perspective ..all those issues that are (somewhat) resolved already by the photo.

I think this became most clear to me as a result of trying to copy a Cezanne still life. ( see above) As I worked, I began to see the decisions he made on the canvas.How he took the raw elements of cloth, pot, dish, apples...threw them all up in the air and juggled them into an arrangement that no photo could ever approximate.

Even if I were an expert copyist and was able to re-produce what Cezanne had painted, I would not be an 'artist'. I'd be a painter or a copyist...but not an artist.

I want to claim all the credit for what I produce. I don't want to share it with the camera.!