Photography Biography & My Story
© Thomas Levine All Rights Reserved
About: Thomas Levine
Professional Photographer & Educator
Thomas’s experience for the past 50+ years has been as a Fine Arts and Advertising Photographer. His specialities are food, architecture, advertising, nature and travel photography. Tom’s photographs have been used for editorial and travel stories, numerous magazines, billboards, posters, and licensed for stock.
Breathtaking photography with skill, talent, passion…
Thomas Levine is a multifaceted photographer whose eclectic interests have guided him to train in various disciplines, from the intricate and painstaking art of advertising photography to the passionate capture of wildlife, fine art, and travel photography .
Levine can trace his development as a creative professional to his youth. His paternal grandmother was a painter; his mother, an interior designer, each contributing creative gifts from both sides of the family. Growing up in Omaha, Neb., he enjoyed helping his mother create window designs for the retail store his parents owned. That is, by the way, where he also picked up a handy business acumen.
It was architecture that first captured Levine’s eye when he picked up a camera at the age of 14. He continued pursuing his fascination with photography, and started a disciplined study of it at Arizona State University, where he also concentrated in Biology, Zoology, Botany and Physics.
Moving into the world of commercial photography, Levine became renown as an architectural and advertising photographer. He and his wife moved to Tampa, Fl. in 1987, which is where he discovered the precise and demand discipline of photographing jewelry. It was during this time that Levine mastered the intricacies of his craft. Levine commercial photography business took off during his second year of business doing extensive photographic work which was displayed for Bloomingdales, Dillards, Dayton and Hudson department stores.
Experience:
Working with the intricacies of a 4×5 camera helped teach him about lighting, design and tolerances of exposures, cropping, color contrasts and other concepts.
Levine has studied under several renowned teachers:
– Ryszard Horowitz, internationally renowned advertising photographer, expert in special effects and digital imaging.
– Bruce Dale, Innovative photographer, specialist in computer manipulation, photographer for “National Geographic.”
– Jim Britt, celebrity photographer from Los Angeles, photos featured on cover of “People & Time” magazine and past ABC TV on-location photographer.
– Norman McGrath, architectural photographer, author of “Photographing Buildings Inside and Out.”
– Dennis Yankus, advertising photographer, for whom Levine assisted for two years.
By 1999, Levine was pioneering digital photography. He had started mastering Photoshop in 1995, when the concept of digital photography, managed by the Photoshop program, was in its infancy. “We used the digital camera on-location and in the studio tethered to the laptop. Clients loved seeing the image immediately. It was a big hit in the beginning, now it’s standard on on-location shoots.
Levine went on to serve as President and CEO of a media company where he managed the graphic design division, as well as acting as art director and lead advertising photographer. The company produced advertising photography, CD-ROM, Internet, video and design work.
In 2010 Tom relocated to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area but since 2014 travel photography became Tom’s emphasis as he travel in SE Asia. Currently Thomas developing ebooks on photography, lighting, composition and travel.