Pictures, not pixels, are the stock-in-trade of photographers.

Modern cameras and lenses are fantastically capable devices. However, with that power comes complexity. More importantly, photography is the art of capturing and manipulating light. To be truly effective at that, you have to understand some of the science of light.

You don’t take a photograph, you make it.

For most of us the chemical darkroom is an artifact of the past. Gone is the developer, fixer, and stop bath, and in it's place is the develop module, the clone tool, the computer.

I learned at an early age that I could make the things that I wanted.
That's a very powerful thing to realize as a kid.

It goes without saying that camera gear can be expensive, and that means it's sometimes attractive to build something yourself instead of buying it. In some cases, it's not especially difficult to build perfectly reasonable substitutes with minimal tools in the garage or home shop; in other cases not so much.

If you're out there shooting, things will happen for you.
If you're not out there, you'll only hear about it.

Traveling with a camera can be a stressful affair. Between worrying about theft and damage, airport security, weather, having the right gear, and having the right conditions when you get there, there's a lot that can go wrong. On the other hand, there's also a lot that can go right.