Pine in mist

Pine in the mist

This is a tourist type picture.  I was standing at a beaten vantage point, shooting in the famous Jiang Jei Jai geological park.  I have to heavy-handedly(?) massage this picture to mak it look "different", because it was a very bland picture.
I'd been very serious with photography, wielding the biggest and most advanced cameras I could afford, and the heaviest and sharpest lenses I know of.  But the seriousness of attitude and the value of the gears didn't guarantee quality.  I always ended up with thousands of pictures I was proud of amongst friends, but those are friends you associate with in Facebooks, not with the photo club or anything. 
When I look back to the thousands of pictures, I could see some "good" pictures, out of fluke, but mostly, I realized I've been wasting time and effort and money.  But wait -- what's life about?  A continuous pursuit of happiness, right?  If you measure the among of bliss I derive from this expensive hobby, may be it's worth every penny.  I am always perplexed by money -- if I counted the amount of money I put into camera gears, it was a lot, by all standards.  If I didn't put all that money into camera gears, I would end up with a fatter bank account with a different figure, but what would be the difference?  Would I FEEL the difference?