On the boat to Rock Island to surf near Cloud 9; Siargao, Philippines. Photo by Sande Fuentes

Welcome to my site

My name is Tommy and I'm a photographer and writer based in Bali, Indonesia and Winchester, Virginia.

How I ended up here is a long story, but I'll share the more interesting parts with you on this page and in my blog. I created this website to share my favorite photos, some travel stories, photography tips, and the consulting projects I've been working on lately.

I'll be adding new photos, stories, photo tips and more very soon. To keep up with the latest news just enter your name and e-mail address in the fields below, and you'll get my free newsletter. Don't worry, I don't like spam either and I take your privacy very seriously.

Thanks very much for visiting, and I look forward to hearing from you. If you'd like to get in touch, just send an e-mail.

How did I get here?

Fly fishing for wild rainbows on the Gallatin River near Big Sky, Montana. Photo by Preston Schultz

Sometimes I ask this question myself. However it happened, I'm really happy to be where I am and working with amazing people on some really interesting projects today.

Here's the short version of the past ten years.

The Dot-com Boom Passes Me By...Thank God

I graduated from the University of Virginia in 1998 with an Environmental Science degree in the middle of the dot-com boom. At the time, I was pretty low-tech and didn't even have an e-mail address (I got my first Hotmail account in 1999).

To be honest I didn't understand the dot-com hype at all, so with the help of my good friend Bill Bullock I moved to Manchester, Vermont to become the youngest fly fishing instructor in the Orvis Fly Fishing school. Green Mountain trout streams, dry flies, and wild brook trout made a lot more sense to me than stock options, gigabytes, and foosball tables in an office, so for me this was a pretty ideal first job out of college. Spending most of my time outside and meeting a lot of interesting people was also a huge bonus.

As I learned more about fly fishing for wild trout, I realized that pollution, deforestation, and dam building had the potential to wipe out fragile mountain stream environments very quickly if nothing was done. I had heard about Trout Unlimited and the success the organization has had in restoring and conserving threatened trout streams, so I looked for an opportunity to work with them.

Editing the The annual fly fishing calendar was my favorite project at Trout Unlimited and also how I learned about becoming a professional photographer.

Trout Unlimited: When Non-Profit Experience Is Better than More Time In A Classroom

With the help of John Bleh (who I met while working at Orvis), I joined the Marketing Department at Trout Unlimited and began four years of hands-on learning about everything from fundraising, web development, magazine publication, professional photography, and a lot more. Within three years, I was the Director of the Marketing Department and responsible for a budget of $6 million (approximately half of the total budget for the entire organization).

Working with Kenny Mendez, John Griffin, and Bill Sullivan, I learned to love the flexibility of non-profit work. And with a small office there was always more than enough work to go around, so I had almost complete freedom to work on a huge variety of projects within the organization well beyond my immediate responsibilities within the Marketing Department. My favorite was, by far, editing Trout's annual calendar.

Photography has been a love of mine since I was 17, but it was at Trout Unlimited that I first got to know a lot more about the life of a professional photographer. I was very lucky to work with many talented photographers while I was at Trout Unlimited, but Tom Montgomery and Val Atkinson were the most fun to collaborate with. They also taught me more about the life of a professional photographer than I could have learned from any book or website, and I owe both of them a huge thank you for all their encouragement and advice when I was getting started as a full-time photographer.

In the field with the Silliman University Marine Lab. I was very lucky to be able to participate in marine biology surveys with the scientists from the Lab when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Dumaguete. Photo by Analie Candido

The Biggest Decision So Far... Joining the Peace Corps

Around this time, my love of photography and exploring the world was becoming difficult to ignore. My friend Steve was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and the more I heard about the amazing experience he was having, the more I thought seriously about volunteering for the Peace Corps myself. It didn't hurt that the Virginia recruiting office of the Peace Corps was directly across the street from my office at Trout Unlimited, so during a lunch break one day I stopped in to ask the recruiters a few questions.

Before I knew it, I was in an interview for a position as a volunteer and walked out of there that day with a folder stuffed full of application materials. At the time I wasn't sure I would actually join the Peace Corps, but the recruiter said "just apply and see what kind of assignment you get."

Six months later my assignment invitation arrived in the mail and I didn't know what to think: The Philippines.

I had been to Asia only once (Thailand), and knew only the basics about the Philippine archipelago: 300+ years of Spanish colonization, WWII “I shall return,” and plenty of natural disasters.

If I accepted, I would join the Coastal Resource Management program with a focus on Sustainable Island Development. The enclosed brochure mentioned coral reefs, scuba diving, and hands-on marine biology in some of the world's most amazing tropical environments. Apparently my degree in Environmental Science and working on salmonid conservation for four years made me a marine biologist in the eyes of the U.S. Government.

It all sounded great, but I still had a lot of responsibilities at Trout Unlimited, and I had just received a very generous raise and promotion. To make such a huge switch seemed crazy, and plenty of people told me exactly that.

In the end, it was some great advice from John Griffin that helped me make the final decision to join the Peace Corps. At the time it was very difficult to leave Trout (and I really owe a lot of the success I've had today to what I learned from everyone from TU), but looking back on it now I can say that joining the Peace Corps was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Frying Nemo playing at Hayahay in Dumaguete.Thanks to Raul, Kerwin, Kekerd, Ace, Ramon, Nowell, Jude, Harold, Paul and Steve for all the good times we had on stage. Special thanks to Sande Fuentes for inviting us up to play again and again.

The Philippines Changes Everything

When I finally touched down in Manila in late January 2004 aboard a Northwest airlines plane full of fellow Peace Corps Philippines batch 263 members, I still didn't know exactly what to expect.

Within the first week I learned that I'd be working at the Silliman University Marine Lab in Dumaguete on an interpretive environmental education center, as well as other projects with the marine biologists from Silliman. I would be working with Dr. Hilconida Calumpong, one of the most respected marine biologists in the Philippines, and a prominent expert on coastal mangrove forests and seagrass beds.

Two and a half years of Peace Corps service passed more quickly than I could have possibly imagined. Here's the highlights:

• Working in the field with the marine biologists from the Silliman University Marine Lab.
• Becoming a part of the Dumaguete community and playing music with Frying Nemo. Dumaguete is like a second home to me today.
• Learning to scuba dive, and becoming a published underwater photographer.
• Publishing magazine articles and having my work used in the Patagonia catalog.
• Learning a new language, living in a foreign country, and learning how to travel like a local.
• Working with the Apo Island community and learning about their amazing marine sanctuary.
• Meeting and becoming friends with so many great people from the Philippines and the Peace Corps.

I completed my Peace Corps experience in July 2006 after extending my service by three months to give me time to work on some additional projects. This brought my total time in the Peace Corps to thirty months (24 months of service, three months of training, and a three month extension).

I had not been home the entire time, and I missed my family and friends a lot. But before I returned home to Virginia, I wanted to take full advantage of being abroad in Asia so I left Manila during the first week of July 2006 to begin a three month adventure that would take me to Nepal, India, Thailand, and Singapore. There are too many highlights from this trip to list here, but I'll be posting many of them in the Photos section soon.

But I can say there is one highlight from that trip that is still with me today. I learned to quickly adapt to a new country/culture, and also learned how to travel independently and be comfortable with a certain level of discomfort (the Peace Corps helped with this too, of course). And of all the great experiences and new skills I learned in the Peace Corps and from traveling, this is the one that has had the most significant impact on everything I've experienced since then.

Finally returning home to Virginia at the end of 2006, it was so great to catch up with family and friends. But it was also time to decide what was next.

At this point I was completely hooked on photography and exploring new countries / cultures, so I was looking for ways to continue my career abroad. Since I already had some success with getting my work published in magazines, newspapers, and catalogs, I decided to launch myself as a full-time freelance photographer and writer. While I was home, I began to prepare myself for my new career freelancing in Southeast Asia with Dumaguete as my base.

Elephant rodeo in Pai, Thailand--at least we had a river to crash into instead of hard ground. The elephant always won by the way. Photo by Wu Lan

Making the Leap: Living Abroad as a Freelancer

In early 2007, I caught up with John Griffin and he told me about an amazing project based in Bali, Indonesia called Photovoices International. John put me in touch with Ann McBride Norton, the Director of Photovoices and the more I learned about the project, the more excited I was to be a part of it. Ann invited me to Bali in late 2007 to help create the Photovoices website and help out with translating the amazing stories behind the photos from the field into English.

I spent the end of 2007 and most of 2008 in Bali, and by December 2008 I was completely hooked on the island, its culture, friendly people, world-class waves, and great food.

Today, when I'm not traveling or on a photography assignment, I'm based full-time in Bali. I also get back home to Virginia regularly to catch up with family / friends. I work on a wide variety of photography, editorial, and consulting projects and honestly could not be happier with how things have turned out.

How can I help you?

Thanks for reading this far, I may have gotten a little carried away with that story above.

Perhaps you have a project, a question, or a problem I could help out with?

Sharing what I've learned from my experiences has been one of the most rewarding parts of my career so far, and I'm very excited to find new opportunities to work with great people on interesting projects or help solve difficult problems. If you'd like to get in touch, please just send me an e-mail.

Here's a sample of some projects I've worked on recently:

• Web design / web development: I'm a creative person with a background in visual art and design. I also have a technical background and a degree in Environmental Science and managment experience from running a $6 million marketing program for Trout Unlimited. If you don't like the way your website looks or think it could use a facelift, I can help.
• Editing / Content development: I also have a background in freelance journalism and have a background in writing and editing. Maybe your website feels like it was written by a computer? I can fix that.
• Assignment / Location photography: I shoot with a photojournalist style for commercial and editorial clients. I'm based most of the time in Southeast Asia, so regional travel for me is not a problem. Just send me an e-mail to ask about availability and rates, I'd be happy to shoot your project for you.
• Bali surf photography: When I have the time, I love to shoot surf photography in the water on the waves around Bali. If you have a group of friends planning to surf the island, just send me an e-mail to ask about availability and rates.
• Outsourcing / integration with design and technical teams: With a background in both technical and creative projects, I know how to communicate with both designers and programmers. I helped redesign the Trout Unlimited website twice while I was at TU and worked with multiple programming and database vendors. I know from experience that integrating your design and programming teams can be the most difficult aspect of any online project. I can help you communicate your vision to both your design and programming teams effectively.

If you'd like some samples of my work, please click here or feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll be happy to provide you with more examples from my portfolio.

I didn't answer your question?

If there's anything I didn't cover in the paragraphs above, don't worry, I'm going to be adding more info soon. In the meantime...

• You want to license or buy one of my photos for one of your projects or just hang on your wall or post to your blog? Just click the "Buy / License" button that's next to the photo(s) you'd like to use.
• You want to see some examples from my portfolio? You can find examples of my published work here.
• You are buying a digital camera and need advice about which one to choose, or how to take it underwater? I'm listing all the camera and travel gear that I recommend and use in the field on my camera and travel gear page.
• You are interested in joining the Peace Corps and want to learn more about what an assignment can be like, or need advice about deciding whether the Peace Corps is a good choice for you? I'll be covering highlights and advice from my own Peace Corps experience in my blog.
• You need digital photography or underwater photography tips? If you have a question about a specific photo, just leave a comment or question in the box beneath the shot. Otherwise, I'll be adding digital photography and underwater photography tips and tutorials to my blog in the coming weeks and months.
• You need travel advice or have questions about the places I've covered here through the photos on my website? This is also a feature I'll be adding to my blog sometime soon.
• You want to know about how I made the transition from working in an office to working independently? Yep, also will be covering this (and more) in the blog.

"Look mom, no hands." Don't worry, I wasn't actually driving the motorbike in this self portrait. I used a slow shutter to bring out the speed of the bike on Bali's coastal highway on a surf road trip we took to Lombok in November, 2008.

You have a question right now and I haven't covered it yet? No problem, you can just e-mail me and I'll get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

The easiest way to keep up with the latest news here is to simply sign up for my free newsletter (just enter your name and e-mail address into the form at the bottom of this page).

With your free subscription, you'll also be able to download many of my favorite photos as computer desktop or iPhone wallpaper. I'll also send you the latest updates from my blog and help you to find answers to questions you might have.

Thanks very much for visiting my site, I'm looking forward to seeing you back here sometime soon.
~Tommy, January 2010