My mother bought me film developing tank and chemicals, and a contact printing lightbox (for 6x6) to keep me off the streets (so to speak) when I was 13. Then enlarger. Camera was my father's Ljubitel from the fifties.
Year book photographer during my foreign exchange year in Santa Paula, Ca, class of 1972. Saved all my pennies and bought a Canon FTb!
Started to study mechanical engineering in Helsinki University of Technology, but only read photo magazines in the comprehensive library (well over 1000 magazines were subscribed there). They even had the original Scientific American with the trotting horse on the cover!
I applied to the University of Art and Design to study photography and was actually accepted (5 out of 164 it was that year). Started freelancing on the side, engineering studies went to back burner.
Summer apprentice in a large national newspaper 1978. In October they asked if I could come to work for 2 weeks, as they had run out of staff photographers (several accidents in various parts of the country). I said "I can come if you hire me for the rest of the year and pay full union wage". Done deal. Next January I continued as full staff photographer with sizeable bonus.
3 years later I decided to quit and start free lancing again, without any preparations. Good times, local newspaper, bank and co-op magazines with huge circulations, good pay. Went to travel in Asia for 7 months with wife, pictures paying our way. Got assignments from the leading weekly newsmagazine, won the "news photographer of the year" award for them in 1984, first color reportage to get the title. Staff photographer for them from 1985 onwards.
Interesting times: Yemen, Amazonia, China, USA, South Africa, all Europe with collapsing communism starting from Gdansk in 1980 to Kosovo independence. Have sailed on an icebreaker with Indira Gandhi and flown in a jet piloted by his son Rajiv. Bumped into Deng Xiaoping in Datong by accident, met him in Beijing later also. Couple of US presidents, all Finnish ones from Kekkonen onwards, sat on the back yard of Sam Nujoma's mother in Namibia drinking beer with her and him. Spent time in Mosul with US troops.
Last 15 years have seen changes for the worse. Digital cameras, also video, are wondrous, but the business side started to get ugly. Saving money, no travel, everything pre-designed, no more "free reportage" type assignments. Time to retire, got out before the ship started really sinking (circulations have dropped 70%). Used to have 28 in photo department (even after the lab was dismantled), now there are 7, only 5 photographers in the whole company (some 20 magazines), we used to have 3 staff photographers in just our magazine alone, 4 large studios, now none.
1954 was a good year to be born as a photojournalist, even though I did not know it then. Earned my first money when I was 5 years old selling sauna dried hops to the local pharmacy: 300 silver marks (now equal to about $4), but that was not to be my career.