Equipment mattered, but it was not the most important thing. To take photographs that moved people and carried emotional impact, the mind behind the camera mattered more... That statement was correct.
It was just that photography was not only about expression and creation. Many people simply wanted to play with photography equipment. They could not be bothered to spend time improving their creative and expressive abilities; they merely enjoyed upgrading their gear and thereby improving their shots a little. A slightly wider aperture, slightly prettier bokeh, a slightly better sense of atmosphere—they would not hesitate to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands for that.
The saying that photography could impoverish three generations generally referred to this kind of gearhead. A simple hobby, or even commercial photography, did not have to cost much at all; it could even make a great deal of money.
It was true that phones could produce good work, and some people could create good work using nothing but their phones. Still, there was no need to look down on gear enthusiasts with such a sense of superiority. After all, there really were photographs that gear enthusiasts could take but phone photographers were powerless to capture.
They were simply interested in different things. It was the simple principle that everyone had their own preferences.
The equipment Bai Hui used now was vastly better than what she had used when she had first started uploading videos online in high school. But her viewers did not really care whether the blur in her videos looked more natural, whether the background lighting and atmosphere were better, and so on. People were straightforward: as long as she remained just as bouncy, cute, and sexy, that was enough.
For this shoot, Bai Hui had borrowed several outdoor photography lights and an