An attorney, huh? I wanted to be one of those a while back. Seems like a pretty comfortable life; do well for yourself and your family, have enough cash around to not worry too much about the world. Before I go too far aside, I have to agree with WS2 on what he said. See, a long time ago (we're talking maybe age 8, so I guess really not too long) I was standing around next to the tracks with my dad, and that day we by accident happened to have the family's little Kodak Star box camera lying around in the car. I wanted a picture of a train to put on the wall in my room, so as the gates went down I grabbed the camera, ran out of the car, stuck my grubby little nose up to the camera and pressed the shutter. I still have that first picture, and I've gotta admit, for being taken with an idiot-proof camera, it looks like garbage. In my teen years, with my first steady job in high school, I scrounged up enough to buy a D70 right after they hit the market. It may seem as if I'm rambling, but the point of the matter is, I really wouldn't have a reason to be where I am today without really taking advantage of what I learned in photography from doing rail photography. Without railroads, I probably would have had no reason to pick up any sort of camera, much less develop my photography into a form of semi-sustainable income. And the one place I can say, hands down, I've learned the most? Railpictures.net. I got on there, all full of piss and vinegar, and I got knocked down a bit. But I listened to what others gave for advice, held my own but didn't anger anyone, learned from my experiences, and grew not only as a rail photographer, but all of my photography in general. The way I see it, it's not like some people say, "a competition to get the best shot." It's a way to keep challenging yourself with new ideas and new experiences, and striving to do better in something you really enjoy. If you lift weights, you don't keep bench pressing 100 lbs. for the rest of your life, do you? First off, that would get boring, and secondly, you probably wouldn't get any stronger. Railpictures.net is constantly a challenge, that's no lie. But if you really enjoy something, there's nothing wrong with a good challenge every now and then. It's good to prove to yourself that you can continue growing with something you enjoy. And yeah, if you get good enough, it can turn into a job. I thank where I'm at now for what I did with RP, and hope to make a steady job out of it in the [somewhat dying] photojournalism field down the road. But I'm not picking that career for the riches, cause if you're looking to be a photojournalist for the money, you've looked in the wrong place. I know I'm going to do this as a career because day in and day out, I know work will be a new challenge, and there's nothing more satisfying that accomplishing those challenges.
So guys, don't knock RP. They don't baby anyone, but then neither does the real world. You have to make the cut in the real world in anything you do, or you get left behind.