"Awesome pics man..which cam?"
Do you see anything weird in that statement? No? Ok, how about this..
"Awesome food man..which stove?"
Now?
I bet for sure! ;-)
How often have you come across good photos with atleast one such comment? In this age where there is a deluge of photos being posted on the internet by almost everyone, I guess it is taken for granted that photography is a 'See-Point-Click' phenomenon. And that, any good looking photo is due to the camera that is used. Yes, camera is one of them. But it plays an small part in the equation.
The pains a photographer takes to make a picture is much more than just pointing and clicking. It is the photographer's point of view and effort that brings out the picture. Take 2 people to the same place at the same time and ask them to click a photo. The place might be the same. But the pictures could very well be different. Same is the case with the a picture of a place clicked on different days by the same person. How different they would be depends on factors like light, weather, angle, photographer's mood etc. When all these factors come together in the right amounts, one sees a picture on the screen.
And after all that, nothing gets as annoying when somebody makes that statement and asks that question, in the same breath. Not because it is a wrong question. But because it undermines the effort put in. Think of this. You may have the same stove as your friend's. But will the food taste the same? ;-)