Kevin Thom - Hamilton, Toronto, Ontario Photographer

This is the stunning National Grand Theater in Beijing, China. Its nickname is "The Egg" for obvious reasons. Its futuristic design made it appear like an interstellar spacecraft, so that's how I attempted to make it look in my capture of it.

You can see more of my travel photography in the People and Places section of my full portfolio.

After an autumn rainstorm, I saw this golden leaf lying in the parking lot. To me, it looked like it was trying to blend into its unnatural surroundings. Do we often try to do the same thing?

I've got more artistic and conceptual photography in my full portfolio.

I shot this photo in collaboration with Hamilton artist Laura Hollick. The photo explores her relationship with the characters of her inner world mythology, like the white bird pictured with her. The photo involved much planning and preparation, but in the end, it came down to beautiful weather, beautiful light, and dancing with the breeze on the shore of the lake.

All of my promotional photos are collaborations. I love working with inspired people to create photos that express who they really are. To see more, please see my gallery of promo photos.

Working with musicians is always a special treat for me. Photography and music are just two different dialects of the language of art, and translating from one to the other is a challenge I love to face.

In this case, the artist is Kae Sun, whose hip hop music includes guitars and other traditional instrumentation. I wanted to reproduce a kind of smoky jazz-club feel to go along with his stylish threads and fusion sounds.

To see more examples of my band photography and photos of other performers, see the performers gallery in my full portfolio.

A lot of times, people ask me why I photograph famous things, when there is lots of other relatively unknown subject matter worth photographing. In a way, I agree, and try to photograph these things too, but I also believe that just because something is beautiful and famous doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve to be photographed. In fact, I think these famous sites are the supermodels of architecture. I'd be a fool to go to Paris, and not photograph the Eiffel Tower, just as I'd be a fool to turn down the opportunity to photograph Gisele Bundchen, for instance.

My approach instead is to try to find a new way to photograph these famous subjects. For instance, in this photo, I arrived at the Eiffel Tower at about 6:30am, long before the throngs of tourists arrived. I wanted to get the most interesting light, and as little human interference as possible. It was an awe-inspiring place at that hour. Only cleaning crews, some armed guards, and the occassional jogger were there to keep me company. I hope I was able to capture that feeling.

You can see more of my travel photography in the People and Places section of my full portfolio.

I've been many places, shooting many wonderful things, but sometimes you don't have to go very far to find beauty. This is the new facade for the Art Gallery of Hamilton, in my very own hometown, Hamilton, Ontario. The AGH sign has since broken off and fallen into the street, so I'm glad I got it while it was still in place. I'm also glad I wasn't there when it happened!

I've spent quite a lot of time taking photos in Hamilton. If you want to see more Hamilton, Ontario photography, check out the Hamilton gallery in my full portfolio.

A good deal of my time is spent creating headshots for actors and business people. An actor's headshot is like a business card. But more than that, it must instantly convey that actor's personality and character. It must seize the viewer's attention.

At the same time, it can not deviate too far from the standard headshot composition that is designed to show the basics of someone's appearance. For this reason, it's always my goal to create headshots that are like visual resumes: they should convey a person's extraordinary attributes as succinctly as possible.

To learn more about acting headshots and corporate headshots, see my headshot page.

This portrait is just plain bad-ass. Max Boateng is the model.

To see more portraits with character, check out the Portraits section in my full portfolio.

I took this photo while relaxing at a friend's cottage up north, in Magnetawan, Ontario. I was inspired by Chinese brush paintings of birds, which are so soft, yet so precise. These little creatures provided hours of entertainment as they fluttered, fought, scolded and sang all day long.

You can see more of my nature photography in the Nature section of my full portfolio.