Tom F
Freelance Photographer
NPPA
Thurmont, MD, United States
With an interest in photography since high school, I pursued the medium as a hobby until college. While working part-time at my local camera shop and taking pictures for my community college newspaper, I was fortunate enough to be noticed by my local daily newspaper’s photography editor and was picked up as a freelancer. The two-person staff at The Citizen (Auburn, NY) mentored me, giving my start in the profession more than 20 years ago. I completed my associate's degree at Cayuga Community College (Auburn, NY) and went on to receive my bachelor's degree in Professional Photographic Illustration from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). While in obtaining my degree at RIT, I primarily worked part time with Wolf Community Newspapers (Rochester, NY) as a photographer. Following my graduation I did photography internships at the Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY) and Syracuse (NY) Newspapers until accepting a full-time position at the Centre Daily Times in State College, PA. I worked there as a staff photographer for 3 ½ years, until fall of 1997 when I accepted my staff position at The Gazette. After 17 years shooting community news in the Baltimore/DC region I am currently a freelancer. The Gazette shut down all operations in June of 2015. I am a member of the National Press Photographers Association. I currently reside in Frederick County, MD.