Michael Thomas was born and raised on Long Island, New York. Born to a family of artists, from an early age he had the bug for photography that was nurtured by his parents with gifts of Kodak cameras that he took everywhere. In high school, he was selected to be the editor of his school's yearbook. This gave him the opportunity to focus closely on people, sports and lifestyle photos. His Canon AE-1 was a trusted companion. This continued into college where he minored in art.
After college he began a career in education, working at several schools in around northeastern United States. At each of these schools he took on failing, underfunded yearbooks and turned them around both in quality and finances. This opportunity also gave him the chance to work on his editing skills in the darkroom.
With the advent of digital photography, his photo life changed; he needed a new creative challenge. While living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Michael began going to college sporting events at Harvard, MIT, Tufts and Boston University. One day at a diving meet at Harvard he was taking photos when a diver's mom who was standing next to him asked to see the photos of her son. It was her astonishment of the quality of the photos and her encouragement that Michael should do photography professionally that has created his recent photo career and developed a strong friendship with this woman's family. And her diving son has become Michael's most photographed model. It was this young man's desire to be a model that got Michael into model photography.
Michael delved into modeling photography on the Internet connecting with photographers all over the country and finding out how to become a professional photographer. One photographer from Vermont guided him immensely by helping him find a great studio in Lawrence, Massachusetts (covershot.net) and connecting him to modeling networks.
While Michael was building a reputation in modeling photography he continued with sports photography, particularly diving. He traveled the country attending meets as faraway as California. He has photographed all the top US divers of recent years. And was asked to cover the US Olympic Diving Trials in Indianapolis in the summer of 2008, working alongside the senior Sports Illustrated photographer Heinz Kluetmeier. Premier US diver, Thomas Finchum, used Michael's image of him as his logo photo during the Beijing Olympics. Michael now has models coming from all parts of the country to work with him.
Michael recently turned toward dance photography and has had the opportunity to photograph the Boston Ballet and students at Julliard School. He is looking to expand on this in coming years.
Primarily self-taught in photography, Michael has many people to thank for their counsel and advice. He switched from Canon to Nikon and now uses a Nikon D3 with a back up of a Nikon D80. Michael is looking forward to continued growth in photography and is eager to help aspiring models as well as established ones. Athletes and dancers looking for photographs of their performances and practices are also encouraged to contact Michael.
Athletes, dancers or anyone with a photography project in mind, give him a call or send an email and we will discuss your vision.
Best,
Michael Thomas.