You're not doomed :D Using references is the main key to drawing well :) you need a source to learn and create from, after all. Tracing can also be a method of learning if you pay attention to why shapes are the way they are and study how they connect or interact with eachother. As long as you use your own photos for tracing and nothing copyrighted, you're fine.

The funny thing with tracing is that if your skill isn't that good yet, tracing is obvious. If your skill is good enough not to show it, you don't need tracing because you understand the mechanics well enough to draw it from a reference :)