Hey.
I’m Tom.
Pull up a chair. I’ve spent my life behind a camera, so most of my favorite stories are about other people. Here are a few, and how I got here.
Every rock story needs a kid who shouldn’t be backstage.
If you’ve seen Almost Famous, you’ve basically seen my early twenties. No money, no connections and a whole lot of nerve.
I typed up my own press request on a stolen stack of University of Maryland Diamondback letterhead and made myself look official.
I sent it off to Warner Bros. asking to shoot Van Halen. Somehow it worked. They said yes.
I pointed my camera at the band that started it all for me. And somehow it kept working ever since.
Three decades later I shot Sammy Hagar at MGM National Harbor. Five miles from the house I grew up in. Five miles from where every one of these dreams got started. Camera in hand, and nobody has kicked me out yet.
And that’s what dreams are made of.
I miss ya, Ed.
I asked Sammy Hagar for a song. He said yes.
My first independent film had no music budget, so I took a shot: a song for the soundtrack in exchange for putting Cabo Wabo on screen. I still can’t believe he went for it.
That favor turned into a friendship with the brand. When I started Letterbox Film Festival, a monthly night for indie filmmakers, Cabo Wabo sponsored it and threw the after party.
Somewhere in there, MTV called a couple of times too. That was a fun phone to answer.
You don’t need to be a network to have an audience.
I learned that early. Back when most companies thought video belonged on TV, I helped launch Starboard TV, working with Brightcove to bring the networks’ tech to a company outside the media world. As far as we knew, nobody like us had done it yet.
I’ve told every client the same thing since. Along the way I kept making films too, including Dewey Beach: The Movie, an official selection of the American Renaissance Film Festival.
Helping other people make waves.
The work I’m proudest of was never really mine. It belongs to the artists, brands and people who trusted me to help them start something new.
Apollonia
When Apollonia stepped into something new, I helped her make an entrance. The open we made for her podcast won a Telly, but the best part was watching it land.
VaynerMedia × Lidl
VaynerMedia brought me in to line produce a Lidl commercial. My job was to get the crew, the set and the day right so their idea could shine.
Letterbox Film Festival
Every month, a room full of people who’d never had a screen for their work. Watching a filmmaker hear an audience react for the first time never got old.
Dreams for Kids DC
Thirteen years on the board of what’s now So Kids SOAR. The Blue Wave told their story so more people would show up for those kids.
Watch the video →I still get nervous before the first song.
I’m back shooting shows, and the goal hasn’t changed since that first pass: make the band look the way the night felt, and give them something they’re proud to share.
See the concert photography →
Everything I learned the hard way, so you don’t have to.
You’ll usually find me surf fishing, out on a paddleboard, or in the garage studio with a guitar I play worse than the people I photograph.
So what wave are you trying to make?
A launch, a rebrand, a band on the rise, a team that’s stuck. Tell me about it. I’d love to help.