Oh, so many things to say, but in what order...
(A) For some of us, we get like $40 a fortnight to spend on our hobby after living expenses - and $40 is pushing it, normally closer to 20. Saving 15 on an umbrella is $15 extra we've got to go towards a homemade lightbox... We can afford a bigger cardboard box to cut holes in then.
(B) $37 an hour, great, but I only work 8 hours a day, for the other 16, I'm not getting paid anything, so 3 hours spent making something for my hobby in that 16 hours hasn't cost me anything.
(C) Some of us are not looking for professional results, we're looking for passable results. Homemade stuff which saves 15 bucks will quite often give passable results.
(D) Some of us enjoy the challenge of making things, rather than taking the easy way out and buying them. We like doing things with our hands, learning how things work. It's part of the hobby.
So if you want to spend hundreds of dollars on your gear, be my guest, but don't go laughing at people or calling people morons just because they do stuff like this, producing great results for minimal cost. Take your elitist attitude somewhere else, we don't want it. :thumbdown:
