Margaret Thomas joined The Post as its first woman photographer in January 1966. "Back then? Well, I tell people I was naive, shy, from northern Minnesota, and pure as the driven snow?" says Thomas, "But I could do anything behind the camera." In her 34-year career, she has indeed covered with expert skill a wide variety of events: the Geneva Summit, Israel's 20th anniversary of the Six Day War, post-Duvalier Haiti, war games in Germany and the Democratic and Republican conventions. Thomas's pictures have won her numerous honors, including Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographers Association. Thomas covers the Virginia suburbs from the Manassas County bureau.