Well, as a newcommer to the dSLR world i can say that just buying a good/expensive cam dont make you "Instant PRO"
A person who's been around his/her share of different cams, lenses and other various gear - with a understanding of how to setup the gear to the specific scene can do ALOT better with worse gear than e.g me with my D80
I think people got a bad habbit of blaming gear instead of own skills (i do...hehe
)
I guess photographing is one of the hobbies where "practise makes perfect" really shows
edit: Happy Birthday btw nicole