The year was 1972 as my interest in photography started at age 15. My father took me to Lincoln Camera Shop in Wilmington, Delaware. This was a well-established shop for amateur and professional photographers. We decided to shop for a good condition used 35mm manual camera. Soon we settled on a Minolta SRT-101 with a 28mm, F2.8 lens. The camera served me well for over 30 years and gave me the chance to learn first the basics and then advanced photography methods. During High School, I took a photography class and learned to develop and print images. In the summer of 1977, I had the opportunity to ride along with the New York City Fire Department as a photojournalist. Then soon being a Professional Firefighter working in a City environment. Over many years, I carried a basic automatic 35mm film camera in my fire coat pocket. This allowed me to capture some one of a kind images of Fire scenes and of my brother Firefighters. Traveling the country also provided opportunities to photograph.