Sunday, February 01, 2026
By Mike Moats Photography
Recently I had a conversation with a lady photographer in a Facebook photo group about my images. She said she liked my images and how they looked. I thanked her and mentioned that I had a Macro Photo Club where I had over 280 instructional videos teaching macro photography and included a link to the info.
She had responded to my comment with "$99, No Thank You."
If she bought a lower priced DSLR or mirrorless camera body, a zoom lens and a macro lens, tripod, head for the tripod, photo backpack, some accessories, and a variety of post processing software, she would have spent on the low end about $3,000, and she could have spent much more than that.
This is where the backwards thinking comes in. Her response that $99 for education is too much to spend after she just spent thousands of dollars on the equipment. The manuals for all that equipment doesn't teach how to make better photos.
I don't understand that thought process, spend thousands of dollars on equipment and no money on learning to make better photos.
This is not true of all photographers; many do know the importance of learning from the pro photographers that teach what they do. I know photographers that have spent more money attending workshops than they have on their equipment. They know that the money they spend will help them to make better photos with all that expensive equipment.
Backwards thinking is when you spend many thousands of dollars on equipment and say, "$99, No Thank You" to education.