1980. my first SLR. actually it was my sister's, but i borrowed it for photography class in high school. i started taking soccer action photos immediately. my camera was a canon tx. manual everything. i loved it. it took great photos. in 1983, after graduating high school, i wrote a letter to the editor of a local soccer newspaper. i told him that i took better photos than the ones in his newspaper and that i wanted a job. he responded quickly... very quickly... he said that he took most of the photos in the newspaper (oops!), but he was very interested in seeing what kinds of photos i had taken. he liked them. he hired me. i got $5 for each photo he used. at the same time, i was taking photo classes at college. in 1987 i had five photos shown in the international photo exhibit at the county fair in del mar. one photo received honorable mention. in 1987 i graduated with my a.a. degree in photography. in 1994, still shooting with the canon, i was selected as part of the media/press for the world cup soccer tournament in the united states. i shot 7 games in all, including the final match at the rose bowl. it was a dream come true. i retired my camera (or rather it retired itself) right after that game between italy and brazil. my dream realized, nothing else would compare.

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