tl;dr - hobbyist spends $50 on a flickr pro account, makes $100, and has spent $8000 on camera gear. He's had a great time.
The camera gear is a sunk cost - he's not buying it to make money. He's buying it because he loves taking photos, and wants good gear.
He's a good photographer. But photographers don't make money, unless they are being paid to be there (i.e. for a wedding, or by a news outlet). OK, you can try to sell photos after you took them, but the world is saturated in good photographs.
To make money, you need to create value then find a way to extract some of it. Or you need to con someone. There's few ways for a photographer to make money after creating the value, because there's likely to be so many alternatives to their photo.
The camera gear is a sunk cost - he's not buying it to make money. He's buying it because he loves taking photos, and wants good gear.
He's a good photographer. But photographers don't make money, unless they are being paid to be there (i.e. for a wedding, or by a news outlet). OK, you can try to sell photos after you took them, but the world is saturated in good photographs.
To make money, you need to create value then find a way to extract some of it. Or you need to con someone. There's few ways for a photographer to make money after creating the value, because there's likely to be so many alternatives to their photo.