About Tomas W. Mitchell

Tomas getting ready to ship out prints.

Tomas W. Mitchell was born in 1965 in the amazing state of Utah, USA. At an early age he developed a love of the outdoors, towering mountains and vast forests. Tomas also began studying flora and fauna of the Rocky Mountains and has a deep respect for all life. He started his exploration of photography in 1984 when his father let him borrow a Kodak rangefinder 35mm camera. In 1986 he purchased his first SLR, an old Yashica FR, while serving as a missionary in California for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Tomas returned to California in 1987 and took his first job in the industry working at Carmel Camera Center in Carmel, California. He then moved into photofinishing where he began learning color, and black and white film developing and printing. All the while Tomas was honing his skill as a photographer.

In 1988 he began photographing in portrait studios and soon had his own business in the Monterey, California area working for modeling agencies along with shooting freelance, doing weddings, and portraits. Tomas also took a stint in the camera repair industry. After moving back to Utah in 1990, he opened his own camera repair business. Tomas continued doing weddings, portraits and even product photography along with continuing work in the photofinishing industry. Tomas has worked with many different cameras over the years including Toyo 4x5, Mamiya 645, RB and RZ67, Bronica 645 and many 35mm of all different brands.

In 1997 Tomas stopped doing portrait and wedding photography to concentrate more on his passion for landscape, nature and wildlife. He often jokes that animals and landscapes don’t pay you to take their picture, but he has been able to grow his photography business into a successful venture and his art now decorates homes all over the USA, Canada and Europe.

Tomas has entered his photographs in many contests and competitions over the years. He has won awards in the Epson International Panoramic Awards, Chromatic International Color Photography Contest, Neutral Density Photography Awards, and the IPA Photography Awards.

Tomas has also been accepted into many juried art shows including The Utah Arts Festival; Midway Utah Swiss Days; Utah Urban Arts Festival; National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada; Ceili at the Round House in Evanston, Wyoming; the Heber Valley Western Music and Cowboy Poetry Gathering and many others.

Tomas has a passion for nature, wildlife and travel photography and loves finding the odd or interesting in everyday objects and life.

Tomas is also a multi-instrumentalist musician and loves writing and recording his songs. Tom's music is generally folk in genera, but also enjoys writing acoustic guitar pieces. If you would like to listen to and download Tom's music go to Music by Tomas W. Mitchell.