The author is describing his personal journey, but the real question is not fully answered. And the answer is yes, it matters. For sports, action, wildlife (i.

The author is describing his personal journey, but the real question is not fully answered. And the answer is yes, it matters. For sports, action, wildlife (i.e. not in zoos), deep-space astro-photography (not milky-way), micro-photography (not macro), etc - you need good gear to make high quality photos. By quality I'm referring to technical elements of quality - ample detail, minimum optical aberrations/distortions, good color accuracy, good accuracy of focus, etc. You can intentionally make a picture which is blurry, has intentionally bad color casts, etc - but then we're getting into art here, which is subjective. Having said that, a boring subject will result in a boring photo, and this is true regardless of gear.