Here's a poem by Rudyard Kipling that my mom gave me in a beautiful frame.. I try to live by it as a rule of life:

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php

I started photography with my dad in early 80s by watching him work in his dark room....the dark room initially didn't tempt me but taking pictures did. I got a 110 camera initially then my first SLR - a minolta 7000 in 1987. I always considered having the focal lengths from 20s to the 300s available so from the first SLR had 2-3 lenses always. I didn't know the theoretical aspects of DOF, compositions etc, but always could get a good background blur on a portrait and loved it. I switched to Nikon in 1998 and started digital in 2003. I didn't do bad without any learning and started seriously learning this thing recently...though I still haven't learned any extraordinary photography just yet!

the rest is for you to find out...............

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------///\-----or has passed away from

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----///--\\\---Thank you