Through heat, rain, fog, snow, and hail, my trusty Nikon 6006 and I never faltered. Over the years, the camera has remained intact, but the lenses have grown. Now armed with a 500 mm lens (pretty big for a soccer Mom), my thousands of soccer photos are organized, cataloged, and albumed. My son no longer plays, but his former team, now ranked by The Boston Globe as #1 in the state, is probably the most photographed youth team in history!

I've shot the kids only to deliver the prints to the parents, for no greater reason than, they're there, so why not? A couple of years ago I started creating web pages for the team. (http://www.ilenesmachine.com/soccer.shtml) Last year, sSrn good and wondered if I coudn't do more with them. I wondered too. I still wonder. One of the parents suggested I shoot the professional soccer games and see if I could publish the pictures. Hmmmm, I thought that sounded like fun - but alas had no idea how to go about gaining access to the inner sanctum of professional soccer. I've also never followed professional sports of any kind, so the prospect of actually going to a pro game was not on the schedule.

One not so eventful day in May, the kids' spring soccer coach offered up two tickets to a New England Revolution game. I bought the tickets, only to discover that cameras with removable lenses were not allowed in the stadium stands. Finally, my chance to gain access to the inner sanctum of pro soccer and I'd have to just sit and watch. The prospect of passively sitting was barely overridden by my delight in seeing pro soccer as it compares to youth soccer. My interests were primarily photographic - because I'm just not a fan.

I dealt with my frustration by locating the NE Revolution web site (http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/) in which, I dug to find any email address that might yield me a person to approve of my camera gear. I wrote and requested I be allowed to tow in my camera luggables, using my web site as a weak point of legitimicy. I did mention that I am a member of the Macintosh media, but somehow I doubted the fact I write about computers was relevant to anything related to balls. Ok, well, there probably is a relationship there - but this isn't a sex article, is it?

The next day I received a phone call. The kind press relations person on the other end of the horn said he was very sorry, I couldn't bring in my equipment. It just wasn't allowed. He then made some offhanded comment, like, unless you want to stand through the whole game. "Stand?" I asked. He replied that the only way I could bring in my cameras was to stand on the field for the whole game, and then he could issue me a press pass. My reply? "Stand on the field? YES!" Of course, I'd be overjoyed to stand. I would have fielded foul balls if I'd been asked. Thrilled, excited and estatic, I enlisted a friend to join me, for moral support.

On June 1st, like a kid going to her first baseball game, I nervously made my first entre into the arena of professional sports photography. I checked in, received my green pinny to drape over my clothes, and very nervously walked onto the field to join the ranks the priviledged few with a bird's eye view. Over the next few months, I met some of the players and other photographers. Photographers with equipment that cost more than my car. Undaunted, I keep going and loving every minute of it! The players are real people, and not just some nameless mass with individual numbers.

The side effect of all of this is that, now I find when I can't shoot a game I still want to see it. For the first time in my life I actually know the player's names of a pro sports team and have learned almost all the rules of the game. In the past, I've only been a fan when surrounded by a large group, and was sucked into the excitement by the testosterone around me. This is different. I'm owning this "fanness" myself.

I don't subscribe to cable tv, so, I even found myself going to a sports bar with appropriately large TVs, just to watch a game that was too rainy for me to attend. There I sat, yelling, cheering and making a small scene without the benefit of a group to intensify the experience. I've always thought fans were silly, caring more about some sports players than global warming. I've always thought that who wins a sports match is of little importance in real life. Now, I realize, that being a fan is just another way of caring, belonging, and feeling part of something bigger than your own small work-a-day world. It serves to remove us from everyday problems for that small length of game.

While shooting youth soccer, I'm still reserved, and more interested in the fairness and sportsmanship of the players than who wins, but then again, this particular bunch of kids often wins. In the pro soccer arena I'm different. I've even signed up for cable TV, so I can see away games, and I'm now a real fan!

I suppose it doesn't hurt one bit that my two photographic teams are also heading to their respective championships.