This is my 1,000th post! I found a cool online community with smart people who make me think. Like the song says, "information is food for your brain."

Last week some friends and I were talking, and someone mentioned a poem I haven't read since high school. Anyone in here ever read Dostoevsky? Crime and Punishment in particular? Besides it being a compelling story, it shows the careful balance we all manage every day. We're individuals, but we're also part of the fabric of society.

Written by a victim of the Holocaust:

First they came for the Communists,
-and I didn’t speak up,
-- because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Social Democrats,
-and I didn’t speak up,
--because I wasn’t a Social Democrat.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
-and I didn’t speak up,
--because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
-and I didn't speak up,
-- because I wasn't a Jew,

Then they came for me,
-and by that time there was no one
-- left to speak up for me.

So please, let's keep it civil. I'm not bringing this up to remind everybody of an ugly chapter of history. We've all been there to help a friend out, we've all come to rough points in life and been helped by people we didn't realize were our friends. We all occasionally post a question we need help with on this forum, and experts we've never met before give up their valuable time to help us solve the problem, and to help us understand that solution.

The reason I'm posting this is to remind us of the good side of human nature that's in all of us. Even if the poem seems negative, I think it's really bittersweet.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

This is my 1,000th post!

Congrats on a major milestone...

We're individuals, but we're also part of the fabric of society.

So true...

To me the poem beautifully illustrates the commonality of man. At the risk of becoming morbid, how horrible to have to face death if you were the only one to whom it ever applied. Somehow the fact that we're all in the same boat helps to make mortality, (among other things), a little more bearable.

So please, let's keep it civil.

Indeed... In the immortal words of Ra McGuire, "We're here for a good time, not a long time".

We've all been there to help a friend out, we've all come to rough points in life and been helped by people we didn't realize were our friends. We all occasionally post a question we need help with on this forum, and experts we've never met before give up their valuable time to help us solve the problem, and to help us understand that solution.

Sort of reminds me of the concept in the film "Pay it Forward." Do a good deed and pass it on and the world will become a much better place.

Thanks for the post, good food for thought!

Originally Posted by BreaktheSilence

To me the poem beautifully illustrates the commonality of man. At the risk of becoming morbid, how horrible to have to face death if you were the only one to whom it ever applied. Somehow the fact that we're all in the same boat helps to make mortality, (among other things), a little more bearable.

It's true ... or at least something most of us seem to have in common. Having broken some ribs and torn a rotator cuff, there was a strange little bit of comfort in knowing I'm not alone. Injury is part of life, and sometimes it's the price for what was a lot of fun before I crashed.

Originally Posted by BreaktheSilence

Sort of reminds me of the concept in the film "Pay it Forward." Do a good deed and pass it on and the world will become a much better place.

People keep telling me I should see that. I probably wouldn't have learned to operate a camera ( choose which aperture to use, and how to balance that against the sensitivity to light ) if people didn't share their knowledge with me. And I definitely feel like I owe it to them to share what I've learned with other people. In a more general sense, I owe just about everything to my parents, friends, teachers, neighbors, and a lot of the people I've known. I can't pay them all back, like in My Name is Earl, but I can stop and help an old woman get her groceries up the steps.

Great post, it's nice to see some positivity in here ... stopping to smell the roses.

And for BreaktheSilence, I don't think my photography makes the world a much better place; I wish I could say differently. But it gives me something I really enjoy to do, and people who used to live in Seattle say a couple of my photos bring back good memories. The families of the people in the portraits like having a reminder, say when a kid goes off to college. I'll settle for making my little corner of the world a better place in small ways. We can't all be Gandhi.

lame/10, I got that poem years ago in a forward.

Nicely said Newbie. Forrest I got to know, how long have you been doing photography? You are really good.

Originally Posted by ForrestCroce

Having broken some ribs and torn a rotator cuff, there was a strange little bit of comfort in knowing I'm not alone. Injury is part of life, and sometimes it's the price for what was a lot of fun before I crashed.

Crashed? How are you now? All healed up I hope...

I probably wouldn't have learned to operate a camera ( choose which aperture to use, and how to balance that against the sensitivity to light ) if people didn't share their knowledge with me.

You could probably put what I know about photography on the back of a matchbook, (and have space left over), but I gotta say that your shot of the harbor lights is beautiful. No artificial glare, nice even focus and a real good job of capturing the atmosphere, (almost like being there).

I can't pay them all back, like in My Name is Earl, but I can stop and help an old woman get her groceries up the steps...

I'll settle for making my little corner of the world a better place in small ways. We can't all be Gandhi.

Often times that's all it takes...

The little things mean a lot more than we realize, i.e. the butterfly effect. The smallest influence can cause a reaction, which causes another reaction, and so on, and so on, until ultimately you're looking at a huge impact.

And for BreaktheSilence, I don't think my photography makes the world a much better place; I wish I could say differently.

As someone who lives a stone's throw away from Seattle, I can honestly say that it made my world a better place, even if just for one shining moment.

Did it cure world hunger? No. Did it wipe out the scourge of aids? No. Did it give me a glimpse of a world beyond my four walls and encourage me to think beyond my daily needs? Yes. And when you stop to think about it, that ain't half bad.

Originally Posted by Cheshire_cat

Nicely said Newbie. Forrest I got to know, how long have you been doing photography? You are really good.

Thanks!!

It's hard to say. I guess I've been taking photography seriously for seven or eight years. Before then, I had automatic film cameras, and used them, but never got anything good, and never really tried to. But I've driven cross country six times so far, grew up on the East Coast and live on the West Coast, was born in Denver, so there's a lot of ground I like to cover. The second time I drove through Yellowstone, camped there, and bought post cards with beautiful photos of things like what I was seeing, I started to feel pretty lame.

Digital was an amazing help. My first one was still automatic, and kind of lousy by today's standards, but being able to stand in the same place and see (1) what I'm taking a picture of, (2) what I want it to look like, and (3) how the camera is rendering it, all in the span of ten seconds, I started to pick up a gut feeling of how to use the thing to express myself ... a lot like riding a bike without training wheels for the first time. Got frustrated not being able to set things manually, so I gave the camera to a family member and got one - still digital - with manual controls. And things just sort of picked up on their own.

Plus, I have this pattern of working for a year, saving money, and then taking a few months off and exploring. The last time I drove cross country it took three months ( I've done it in as little as five days ) and 14,000 miles. My furniture is crappy and mostly hand-me-down, but my tent is luxurious and I feel most alive standing under the Continental Divide. And even though I've been in Seattle almost four years now, growing up in rural Connecticut, it still feels new and inspiring. I think taking pictures of something that captivates you is probably more important than anything else, like how much skill you have or what kind of gear.

If I've got any advice to give on the matter, though, using a tripod contributes a lot. And don't think I put anything on the web without somewhere from 15 minutes to several hours or even days in Photoshop. Some people would say that's cheating, but it's like how if you play guitar, the amp is part of the instrument. It took Ansel Adams ten years to get the negative from Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico ready to be printed. And everybody click that link - I'd love to put the photo in here, but it's not mine, and it's not my server, so that would be terribly rude.

Congrats on the 1000 posts John. Heres to the next 1000!

congrats and iam looking forward to have 1000 post ehehhehe

very inspiring thanks for the poem,, i hope you can give us more.

Wow, indeed I do remember reading that poem in high school. It did and still does make me think about the way society works. You are correct about the system of balance; the poem shows that if you don't voice out what you think now, the time to do it will become too late.

You said you read that at a forum? Care to share the URL?